The New Age Chronicles 06 New Alliances
by MTP
Summary: What does a trip to space hold in store for the group? Going out on their own can they really form a new alliance or is it all a trap?
1. The Passing Of Time

Chapter 1 - The Passing of Time

Jet sat up and yawned before looking at his watch. He slowly rubbed his eyes and looked at his watch again.

"Oh man!" he yawned, "It's three in the morning."

"Ah quit complaining kitty face." came a reply from one side.

Jet sleepily looked over to see Andrew fishing through a box of tools. Jet starred at the human and then looked away with a yawn. The pair of them was sat in the belly of an Earth Alliance transport, the same one that had carried Links and his group to the Phantom and back. The ship was pretty badly shot up and repair work had gone into overdrive during the last couple of months. Why? Simply put they needed it. It was now five months after Andrew had decided to stay on Little Planet and a mere few weeks after deciding to stay he had accomplished something that Jet had struggled with for months, the cracking of the codes given to them by the group of humans calling themselves the Higara Coalition. Needless to say once Andrew had found out the codes hadn't come from Robotropolis he had exploded. Jet remember the incident clearly, he had been looking down the business end of a rifle for the whole event. Finally Andrew had calmed down and things had settled back to their usual pace. Jet could still tell Andrew was angry at them for lying to him but everyone knew he couldn't go back to the Earth Alliance.

Jet had often found himself feeling sorry for Andrew. Yes he was from the Earth Alliance and they had caused way too much suffering already but Andrew seemed different to Morgan or the other officers. He reminded Jet slightly of what Francis had been like. Francis had been a good friend and he often wondered if Andrew could be a good friend also. Andrew was now stuck between worlds. After helping to stop Basanda he couldn't return to the Alliance without risk of a court marshal or execution, or both, and he wasn't really welcome within the furry world either. Jet continued to look at Andrew as the human finally turned to look at him.

"What you complaining about now eh?" he asked gruffly.

"I'm tired." yawned Jet.

"Tired! Bah! You don't even know what that means. At the academy I had to go on a seven day survival hike, I didn't get any sleep for three days on one occasion."

Jet just moaned slightly as he looked back at Andrew.

"But then I was twice your age. Fine, go get a few hours sleep, but I want you back here before eight ok."

Jet was about to complain but then realised if he did he'd probably be made to come back earlier. He slowly nodded and then staggered from the room. As he walked towards his room he started muttering to himself.

"Jeez! When they said it was my job to help Andrew I didn't think it'd turn out to be like a military camp. That guys a machine!"

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Sonic and Sally sat close to each other huddled over a holographic display Nicole was generating. It was late at night but both of them looked wide awake as they looked over the display. A number of empty coffee mugs sat next to them which Sonic slowly looked over at.

"Another coffee Sal?" he asked.

"Not right now Sonic. Give the last one time to work ok." she replied.

"You got it."

Sonic leaned back in his chair and leaned over, resting on the arm as he looked at the display.

"Any more thoughts?" he asked.

"You've been asking me that for weeks Sonic. Simply put no. Look what we have here is all we have."

"But don't you think its…well…a little too little?"

"Yes it is Sonic, and it worries me slightly."

"I know."

They both looked at the display. Nicole was displaying a large holographic image of space. In fact it was a large stellar map that had been included in the encoded transmission. At the moment two things were lit up, one was a small red dot labelled Mobius and the second was a pulsing red sphere somewhere in the blackness of space. Sonic reached forward and tapped the pulsing sphere making it expand, however even with the area expanded there was nothing evident at the point in question.

"Looks like empty space to me." he said.

"Yes I agree Sonic. But then anything could be waiting there. A ship, a base…an attack squadron."

"Sally these guys apparently saved Links and co last year. Remember what you said all that time ago when this first started? About how some of these humans might not actually be cruel and evil? I'm no expert but these guys may be the ones we're looking for."

"I hope so Sonic."

"You decided who's going yet?"

"I'm not sure Sonic. The message say six people maximum but we don't really have all that many options."

"I know Sal…but we'll puzzle about that later."

"Yeah."

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Petya sat with a small smile on her face as she watched the sun slowly rising out of the window. Beside her sat T2 who was watching her with a smile on his face. It had been a long road, nearly a year now, but finally Petya was starting to return to normal. She was still jumpy and scarred at times and was rarely seen in public without T2 at her side but still T2 felt happy. It may take another year, or longer, for her to regain her full personality but she would eventually, T2 knew it. Presently Petya turned to him and their gaze met. For a moment they looked at each other and then Petya turned away sharply with a smile.

"I want to go there." she said aimlessly.

"Where?" asked T2.

"There…out there."

"Space?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I dunno."

T2 sighed slowly, smiling as he did. Petya had gotten more and more mysterious lately and he didn't know why, frankly he didn't care though. He slowly got up and left Petya staring out of the window as he walked over to a sink at the other side of the room and poured himself a large glass of water. Just then there was a knock on the door making T2 glance over at it.

"Yes?" he asked.

"T2, it's Links." came the reply.

"Come on in."

The door slowly opened and the blue fox stepped through. Suddenly there was a yelp and a thud and both Links and T2 looked over to see what had caused it. Petya was on the floor behind the bed peeking out slightly. She was shaking slightly and her fur was bristling. T2 shot a glance back at Links to see he was carrying his staff with him, he quickly waved a hand a him.

"Links! The staff, quick!" he hissed.

Links looked at him and then quickly nodded. He placed his staff down on the ground in a corner of the room and unclipped the amulet from his shoulder pads before laying that down also. He then stood up fully and turned back into the room. T2 was now coaxing Petya out from behind the bed and slowly Links walked over to them.

"Sorry Petya." he said slowly, "It slipped my mind."

Petya just gave a few quick nods in response. T2 rose an eyebrow at him.

"Please be more careful Links. You know very well that Petya doesn't like any power source right now except for Lavender." he said.

"I'm sorry T2, when you're fifty two years old things tend to slip your mind occasionally."

T2 just nodded gruffly and turned back to Petya who was now snuggling into his side. Links sat down on the opposite side of T2 that Petya was at and looked at him, T2 looked back at him.

"So what you doing here?" asked T2, "It's still early you know."

"I know but I couldn't sleep. I've been thinking about things." replied Links.

"Like?"

"Many things T2, the events of a year ago have been heavy on my mind."

Petya made a small whimpering cry.

"Don't mention that too much Links." replied T2 gripping Petya's hand tighter to reassure her, "Petya here is still a bit sensitive about it."

"Yes I know T2, but still that's what I've been thinking about. Not what happened on the ship, but what happened afterwards."

"You mean the run in with those guys who gave you the message right?"

"Girl in this case but yes. I've been pondering over who they are."

"Well I guess you'll find out soon enough Links. It's only a few days until the year is up. I just hope that Jet and Andrew figured everything out alright."

"Jet is capable enough."

"And Andrew?"

Links just looked away and gave a grunt. He didn't approve of the human staying with them but had so far not challenged the decision.

"I'll make no comment on him. But what I'd like to know is who Sonic and Sally are going to pick to go on this mission."

"Me too."

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Miles stretched slightly as he lay on his back with the dappled sun fanning his face. After waking up that morning Miles had spent most of the day right here relaxing with a very special person. He sat up and looked over at her. Lavender lay on her front, with her head buried in a patch of grass, snoring happily to herself. Her tails stuck up into the air like a fountain and acted like a huge umbrella, protecting them both from the sun. Miles wondered how she managed to hold her tails up like that when she was asleep. Just then a pulling on his toe made him look down. Attached to his foot was a thin piece of line that led down a small bank and into a river.

"Looks like I got a bite." chuckled Miles giving his foot a flick.

The line tightened and then a small fish flew out of the water and landed next to him. He leaned over and picked it up.

"Ah jeez! Another small one!" he complained unhooking the fish and throwing it back, "Isn't there anything even remotely big in this river?"

"No."

Miles jumped and looked to his side to see that Lavender was waking.

"Jeez Lav you shocked me there."

"Aaaah, sorry." yawned Lavender.

"Good sleep?"

"The best."

Lavender rolled over and sat up, her tails folding down and removing the shade as she did.

"Hot day." she said.

"Yeah very." replied Miles.

"What we need is Links."

"Huh?!"

"He could make a few clouds for us."

"…oh yeah right. Eh heh."

"Silly, what did you think I wanted Links for?"

"I dunno…we could have shoved his staff in his stomach and made a tent out of him."

Lavender started giggling, screwing up her face as she did making her look like some sort of gerbil. Miles chuckled slightly too.

"Fancy some food?" he asked.

"Sure, mom should be home." replied the kitsune.

"Righto then."

Miles leaned over and undid the string from his toe before putting his shoes back on. Lavender meanwhile got up and stretched before using three of her tails to take off. She stretched again in mid air and then turned to Miles who smiled back at her. The pair set off back towards the house, Miles strolling and Lavender flying. They soon passed the huge dark form of the Earth Alliance transport. Outside of it a figure was snoozing in the sun. As they got closer they could see it was Jet. Lavender snickered.

"He was up to late last night." she said.

"Yeah I know. Bumbling fool woke me up when he finally did get to bed." replied Miles.

"Well it's not as if you've been doing anything today."

"Yeah true…I so feel like waking him up though."

"Miles…"

"Ok ok, just a joke."

The pair continued on soon making it to the house and stepping inside, finding Amy in the kitchen making a cup of tea. As they entered she noticed them and turned to look at them.

"Hello Lavender, having fun?" she asked.

Lavender gave a quick nod and smiled.

"And how are you Miles?" continued Amy.

"Oh the usual, fine I guess." replied Miles.

"Good good, let me guess, hungry?"

Both Lavender and Miles nodded a few times.

"Well you're in luck, Marian made a large tray of cookies this morning. They're in that tin there." said Amy nodding with her head.

Miles was at the tin before she had even finished speaking. Lavender meanwhile had raced over to the fridge to get some milk. She quickly poured a couple of glasses and raced over to where Miles was. Miles was now tucking into the biscuits with a vengeance.

"Hey Miles slow down! There'll be none left for me!" she cried virtually jumping into the tin.

Amy gave a sigh and shook her head.

"Something's never change."

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Alindel sat quietly on her bed reading. Outside it was starting to get dark but the sun hadn't completely set yet. Alindel was so engrossed in her book the person at the door had to knock three times before they got an answer.

"Y..yes?" said Alindel looking up at the third knock.

"It's Chalk, can I talk to you?" came a reply.

"Of course."

The door clicked and slowly opened to reveal Chalk. The rabbit stood for a moment scratching her arm in the doorway before sitting down next to Alindel. Alindel had now put her book away and was looking at her waiting.

"I'm worried Alindel." said Chalk finally.

"Chalk that's nothing new, you're always worried about something." replied Alindel smoothly.

"Yes but…I'm worried about Bunnie."

"Aah."

"It just seems like history is repeating itself. Remember I went off for weeks with Sonia?"

"I don't remember that Chalk, remember I wasn't here at that time, but yes I was told about that."

"We rabbits are a bit like this. Going of on our own from time to time but…this time Bunnie has gone by herself and with the Earth Alliance still prowling around…"

"Chalk you needn't worry about her. Granted I've not been here as long as you and I don't know her as well as some of the others but she seems capable enough."

"Yes but after what she went though, what we all went through, losing Knuckles and…and Sonia…"

"Hush child." said Alindel tapping a finger on her lips, "Just like you had to go off, so too now does Bunnie. It's just one of those things."

"Wish I'd gone with her."

"Chalk you're better off here. You're got more important things to do."

"Sure doesn't seem that way."

"Trust me Chalk. Everyone has a greater purpose, you'll find yours soon enough."

"I guess."

"Yes, now you go and scoot of back to your room and let me get back to my book. It's just getting interesting."

Chalk gave a small laugh.

"Well I best not keep you I guess." she said getting up, "Night Alindel, and thanks."

"Anytime deary, now go get some rest, we have big times coming up."

"I know…I know."


	2. Into The Unknown

Chapter 2 - Into the Unknown

The next few days passed by with much the same happening. Jet and Andrew continued their work, Sonic and Sally continued to plan, Petya's condition remained stable and the others passed each day in the usual way. Slowly the large shuttle was prepped for launch. The procedure was taking longer because of the make shift repairs and the fact that Andrew wanted everything right before he'd be happy.

On one such morning the group was gathering outside in the back garden. Most of them looked devoid of sleep and some had even dropped off again. Sonic and Sally were the last to arrive as always, each coming into view holding a very large mug of black coffee. They made their way to the front of the group and stood for a moment not moving. They then downed the remainder of their coffee and looked at the gathering.

"Ok everyone." announced Sonic with a small yawn, "I guess everyone knows what today is."

Nods spread round the group from the people who were actually awake.

"Ok then. Today is exactly one year from the events of the Phantom rescue. Thanks to some help from Andrew we've been able to crack the data given to us and figure out a plan of action." continued Sonic.

"We know that Sonic." said Chalk, "What we don't know is what this plan actually is."

"We've kept it to ourselves to be completely sure no-one would find out." replied Sally, "We couldn't risk it, even though we trust you all."

Chalk just gave an understandable nod and sat back slightly. Sonic was now looking over the group.

"This next bit everyone should hear so can someone wake that lot up?"

He gestured towards Jet, Links, Alicia and Manic who were sleeping to one side. Alindel slowly stood up and walked over to them, giving each a small shake to bring them round. All of them woke although they looked very groggy.

"Thanks Alindel, now where were we?" said Sonic.

"The plan Sonic." replied Sally with a smile, "We've so far told you very little, only that we needed that Earth transport ready for today."

"You gonna tell us why we need it now?" asked Miles.

"Yes honey, be patient."

"Patience isn't one of my strong points mom."

"I've noticed."

Sally gave a sideways look at Sonic.

"What?!" he replied.

"Anyway!" continued Sally getting back to the point, "There's no easy way to say this but…we're going to space."

"Space!" cried T2 sitting up quickly, "Why on Mobius would we want to go there? The problem is here not up there."

"Part of the problem is here T2 but the rest is out there." replied Sally, "The instructions on the disk give a set of co-ordinates for us to go to and wait."

"Wait for what?" asked Links.

"The disk doesn't say Links." replied Sonic, "All it says is to wait there."

"Smells of a trap to me." said Chalk crossing her arms.

"At any other time I'd agree with you Chalk but remember that the people who gave us this also helped to save Links and Alindel and more importantly Petya." countered Sally.

Chalk crossed her arms even more but nodded again, closing her eyes as she did.

"So what is the plan? Are we all going?" asked Jet starting to come round slightly.

"All? No way kid." replied Sonic, "We need to keep a presence here for a start and…well…the disk says that a maximum of six people are to go."

"What? They're setting numbers?" asked Manic.

Chalk made a small grunt to attract everyone's attention but didn't speak, it was obvious what she was thinking.

"Yes they're setting numbers." replied Sonic, "I didn't like it at first but Sally and myself have been discussing it and we've decided its ok."

"On what grounds?" asked T2 curiously.

"On the grounds that if they really did want to kill us they could have gotten to Links and company a year ago when they first appeared. Look I know it's hard to trust these humans right now but we gotta take some risks if we ever want to get rid of them." said Sonic.

A couple in the ground nodded slowly. The next question was inevitable.

"So who goes?" asked Jet.

"That Jet has been occupying Sally and myself for a while now. We thought it best to open it up to the group and let you have your say." replied Sonic.

"I'll go." said Chalk still with her eyes closed.

"Huh? We're you just saying a moment ago that you thought it was a trap?" said Sonic slightly surprised.

"Yes but if it isn't then you might need some heavy support, which I can provide, and if it is a trap then you're going to need heavy support to get out." replied the rabbit.

"Good point Chalk, ok." nodded Sonic.

"I'll go." said Jet slowly, "You'll probably need help with the shuttle and stuff."

"Ok that's two." said Sonic.

"What about you T2?" asked Sally.

T2 shook his head slowly.

"No Sally I won't go. For a start Petya is still ill and there's no way I'm leaving her side. Aside from that…"

T2 slowly raised his hand, showing everyone the Deep Power Stone.

"Aside from that this will stop me." he finished.

Lavender suddenly gave a small yelp forcing everyone to look at her.

"Lavender?" asked Sally.

"Unky T2 is right." she replied, "The Deep Power Stones are connected to the Vault of Forever. If he leaves then the energy will trail off and make it go dead."

"Correct." confirmed T2, "If I leave Mobius the power of the stone will eventually die off to nothing and I'll loose my powers. Plus I might even fall into a situation like Petya did when her stone was dampened. That wouldn't help anyone and if you're still not convinced about this. I don't think anyone here with magical powers should go."

"Why?" asked Sonic.

"All the magical energy of Mobius stems from the Vault. Remove the energy source from the planet and it'll slowly die away. Plus I think you all remember how little Lavender here was affected last time something was removed. The removal of the Chaos Emeralds when the Chaos Zone formed nearly killed her."

"Then I'll stay too." said Links with a nod, "It's not worth the risk."

Sonic and Sally looked at each other and slowly nodded.

"In that case we better rule you out too Amy." said Sally.

"Yes." she replied with a nod, "And I would stay anyway, this place needs my constant attention. What about you two?"

"Us?" asked Sonic, "Well both Sally and myself are prepared to go if we have to."

"You might have to." said Manic pointing at his leg, "Remember this?"

Everyone looked at him, Manic's left leg was securely fastened up in a brace and bandaged from top to bottom. He had broken it during a scouting mission about a week ago and Amy had thought it best to let the bone set itself rather than heal it.

"Can't do much in this state can I?" he said.

"Hmm…guess so Manic." replied Sonic.

"Alindel?" asked Sally.

"No!" replied the cat flatly, "I'm not going to space for a long time. Not until this is over and buried forever."

Sally slowly nodded in understanding.

"Well that means just Jet and Chalk so far and us if we have to." said Sonic.

"I could go." said Alicia standing up.

"Darling maybe…" started Sally.

"Hey you might be going right? I can help out you know."

Sally looked at Sonic who gave a nod making Alicia smile.

"Ok then honey." said Sally.

"If sis is going I'll go too." said Miles.

Sonic turned to look at him and shook his head.

"No Miles, you'll be staying here." he said firmly.

"Huh? What you mean dad? Why can't I go?" asked Miles.

"Miles don't question it, you're staying here."

"But…but…"

Miles slowly fell silent and sat down. Everyone looked at him and then at Sonic but didn't say anything. Sonic didn't say anything for a moment and then turned to the others but didn't say anything.

"Well if the space is still going I'll go." said Andrew from the back.

A few amongst the group turned to look at the human, until now he had remained quiet. Sonic nodded in his general direction.

"Fine." he said.

"Well then if that's settles lets recap." said Sally, "The group shall consist of myself, Sonic, Chalk, Alicia, Jet and Andrew."

A few people nodded.

"So when do we leave?" asked Chalk.

"Eager as ever I see, tonight Chalk, around six ok." replied Sally.

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The group slowly started to disperse, some heading into the house to rest, other heading out on various errands. Miles however sat exactly where he had been during the meeting. He was thinking about what Sonic had said to him. Why didn't he want him to go?

"Miles!" said a voice sharply.

Miles looked up slowly to see Sonic standing nearby. The older hedgehog waved a finger at him beckoning him over, to which Miles slowly slipped off his seat and wandered over. As he approached, Sonic tucked a foot behind his leg and leaned on a wall. Miles looked at him with mixed feeling.

"Dad? Why can't I go?" he asked.

"Miles walk with me ok." replied Sonic.

Sonic slipped from the wall and started walking forcing Miles to do a quick rev to catch up with him. Sonic started walking towards the Palmtree Panic area of Little Planet looking into the distance. Miles was now walking alongside looking up at him.

"Dad?" he asked.

"Miles how old are you?" asked Sonic.

"Dad you know how old I…"

"Just answer the question Miles."

"I'm fifteen."

"Right Miles, nearly as old as I was back in Knothole, only you're a lot more stable than I was."

"Huh?"

"Miles you're a lot like me aren't you, blue, speedy, impatient!"

Miles blushed at the last comment.

"I try not to be." he said.

"Can't help who you are Miles." replied Sonic.

"So…why can't I go?"

"This whole situation has been nagging at me for a while now Miles and I had an odd feeling I'd end up going myself. In truth I wanted both you and Alicia to stay behind but Sally agreed to letting Alicia go before I could say anything and I didn't want to contradict her in front of everyone."

"But why?"

"We have to keep some Royal presence on the planet Miles. If the entire Royal family suddenly takes off what is the rest of the planets population going to think?"

"Oh…I guess so…but…"

"Besides we need someone here who can plan things."

"What? I'm no planner, T2's the best after you and mom."

"Yes but he's got his hands full looking after Petya doesn't he. And don't under estimate yourself like that Miles. You've had a few moments I would call impressive so far."

Miles blushed slightly, he never seemed to take compliments without blushing. Sonic chuckled and nudged him slightly.

"Plus there's another reason you should stay here."

"What's that dad?"

"Your girl."

Miles went so red it made the sun look shabby.

"DAAAAAAAAAAD!" he moaned, "She's not 'my girl'."

"Really?" replied Sonic giving him a nudge, "Sure looks like it."

Miles blushed again and didn't reply.

"Sorry Miles, couldn't resist. But anyway, Lavender is staying here, she can't go anywhere."

"Yeah I guess so dad. Wish I could go though."

"Hey don't look so down. With myself and the rest of the family you're the top ranking member here, you'll be in charge."

"Wha?! Really?"

"Well sort of, I'm sure the others will be throwing plans round too. I'm putting you, T2 and Links in joint command until we get back."

"Really….wow! Thanks dad."

"No need to thank me. Just take good care of the place while we're gone ok."

"How long is that going to be?"

"That is a very good question Miles. A very good question indeed."

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Evening was starting to draw in over Little Planet and the sun was hanging low in the sky. Its final few rays glinted off the metal hull of the Earth transport as it nestled itself on the horizon. All around the transport the scene was buzzing. The entire group had turned out to help with final preparations, even if some of them looked about ready to keel over. The cockpit was currently occupied by Sonic, Jet and Andrew who were going over last minute details. Jet sat in the pilot seat and was already strapped in as he flicked between various dials and controls. Andrew and Sonic were looking over his shoulder watching closely as Jet turned to look at them. He grinned and then spoke.

"Ok hold onto your butts…"

"Jet!" warned Sonic.

"Sorry…hold on I'm bringing the reactor online."

Jet placed his hand on a control and pushed it forwards. As he did a gentle hum started to fill the air and the lights in the cockpit came alive. Jet looked at a few controls.

"Everything's working great." he informed.

"Good to hear Jet." replied Sonic, "Amazing this thing still works after the beating it got last year."

"Bah!" huffed Andrew, "It wasn't that bad. Our ships can take quite a beating."

"Your ships?" questioned Sonic, "It's ours now don't forget that. So is everything ready?"

"Sure is Sonic." said Jet turning round again and then looking to one side, "Well it better be after the number of late nights I've had."

"Quit complaining fuzz ball." said Andrew flatly.

Jet just looked at him and stuck his tongue out before looking back at the console. Sonic rolled his eyes and walked from the cockpit into the cargo bay. Sally was there checking off boxes and crates on Nicole's display. She looked up as Sonic approached.

"Set?" she asked, "I heard the reactor come online."

"Yeah Jet just powered it up, we look about ready." replied Sonic.

"Good, I'm just checking off the supplies to make sure we have everything."

"Good idea."

Sonic looked over the crates. There wasn't really all that much stuff. A few boxes of food, some water, changes of clothes, technical parts in case of a problem, some small firearms they had recovered from various Earth bases.

"So how long we got left?" he asked.

"No more than an hour. Nicole?"

"Forty seven minutes and seventeen seconds Sally." replied Nicole.

"There's your answer Sonic."

"Hmm…guess I better call everyone together one last time."

"It'll be ok."

"I hope so Sal."

Sally put her hand on Sonic's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze causing the hedgehog to smile before walking off. He walked over to the shuttle hatch and stepped down onto the ground. Raising his fingers to his lips he gave a sharp whistle forcing everyone to look up at him.

"Alright people gather round." he shouted, "Come on quickly now."

The group around him stopped what they were doing and gathered round. Soon afterwards Sally, Jet and Andrew stepped out of the shuttle behind him and joined the group. Most people were now assembled but some were still missing.

"Where's Miles and Alicia?" asked Sonic.

"Right here dad." piped Miles voice from the side.

The two teenagers were walking in with joined arms smiling broadly. Sonic chuckled.

"Alright we're all here right, ok then. Well folks this is it."

"Good luck Sonic." said T2 giving him a small salute like wave.

"Heh! Thanks T2, I got a few announcements before I leave. Firstly I'm putting Links, T2 and Miles in joint command until we get back, whenever that'll be. I'd tell you to take good care of things but I know that's not needed."

A few chuckles ran through the group.

"Also a big thanks to everyone, we couldn't have gotten this far without you all." he continued.

"Well I know THAT!" chuckled Amy from the back.

"Ok enough of that Amy. You just be sure to keep this place in one piece. Its one of the best sunbathing places on Mobius." replied Sonic.

Amy fumed slightly and then waved it off.

"You'll get it one day hedgehog."

"Yeah sure, now where was I?"

"Let me field a bit Sonic." said Sally stepping forwards, "I know you've all been working hard but don't forget what's at stake. I don't know how long this little trip is going to last but I'm counting on you all back here."

"We know Sally." smiled Alindel, "But right now we'll be more concerned about you. This mission could be very dangerous."

"Yeah mom but what's life without a little adventure eh?" asked Jet.

"Hehe, true Jet very true."

"Ok then people!" announced Sonic, "Let's all get set, lift off in forty five minutes!"

The group quickly split up, each heading in various directions doing various things but several stood round in groups talking. One such group was Jet and his mother. Jet stood with his fingers laced together twitching all over.

"Nervous dear?" asked Alindel.

"Huh? Oh…um…not really." replied Jet looking up, "…well ok yes."

"It's natural."

"Wish you were coming."

"Jet I can't go back to space right now. It's too soon and…"

"Hey its ok mom, I understand."

"Jet."

Alindel bent over and kissed Jet on the cheek softly.

"You've grown up so much in the last year."

"Ah jeez."

"Just you be sure to come back ok."

Jet looked up at his mother, she looked as nervous as she sounded. He turned and hugged her.

"I promise mom, I'll do my best."

"I know you will son, here, I made these for you."

Alindel picked up a small basket from beside her and lifted the lid. Inside was a variety of small homemade pies and cakes. She handed the basket to Jet.

"Share them around if you like." she said.

"I will…once I've had my share." replied Jet with a grin.

"Oh Jet."

Alindel knelt down and took her son into a firm hug which Jet returned.

"I'm going to miss you Jet."

"You too mom."

Nearby, but not within earshot, stood Miles and Alicia. They had spent most of the afternoon sitting quietly together. They both had so much to say but neither knew where to start. They stood looking at each other for the longest time before Alicia gently reached for her brother's hand. She held it for a few moments and then looked up at his face. Miles was smiling softly.

"Bye 'licia." he said slowly.

"Sorry you couldn't come Miles." replied Alicia.

"Ah no worries, I've got stuff to do here instead."

"I guess so."

"I…I wanted to give you something but…I don't really have anything."

"Ah Miles, you don't have to give me anything."

"No I mean like a keepsake, a good luck charm or something."

"Oh…I see…well tell you what…"

Alicia let go of Miles hand and moved her right hand over to her left wrist. She slowly unclipped the bangle around her wrist and held it out to Miles.

"I'll give you this instead. I'll keep the other and when we see each other again you can give it back to me."

"But…"

"What? Don't want to wear a girl's bangle?"

"No nothing like that…it's just that's your favourite set."

"All the more reason for me to come back for it. You just better keep it safe you hear."

Miles took hold of the bangle and held it in his hand for a moment before looking back at Alicia.

"You can count on it."

"Miles!"

Alicia threw herself at her brother, hugging him tightly. Watching from as distance was Links and Lavender. Lavender let out a small sigh as she watched them.

"Don't you want to say goodbye Lavender?" asked Links.

"Alicia knows." replied the kitsune, "Besides I think Miles needs time with her more than I do."

"I see."

"I'm glad Miles is staying. He might not like it but I'm glad he's staying."

"Oh?"

"He's nice Unky Links. I'm glad he's staying."

"Well."

Nearer the shuttle stood Chalk and Amy. Chalk already had Catrina clipped into place and was swinging her this way and that practicing stances.

"Expecting trouble?" asked Amy.

"I hope not." replied Chalk, "But no harm in being prepared."

"Guess so."

"Amy would you do something for me?"

"Sure ask away."

"If you hear any news of Bunnie try and contact her. I know she went off to think things over but I've already been there, it doesn't help. I would ask Alindel but she's busy with Jet right now."

"I'll keep my eyes open Chalk."

"Thanks Amy. Tell her to get her butt back here and help you guys out, with us gone you'll need all the help you can get."

"True but then if things go well on this mission we might get more help anyway."

"Why'd you think that?"

"Just a hunch, you know."

Chalk nodded and swung Catrina down to her waist. The huge gun folded up on its belt and locked into position at her side. Chalk put her hands on her hips and stretched.

"I need a sleep." she groaned.

"You're about to set off on a mission into danger and the unknown and you want to sleep?" asked Amy raising an eyebrow.

"Um…yeah."

The final group was made up of Sonic, Sally, T2 and Manic. They stood just beside the entrance to the shuttle talking.

"Well good luck you two." said Manic.

"Dunno if we'll need it or not." said Sonic.

"I hope not." said Sally.

"Well whatever happens I'm sure you can deal with it." said T2, "If the world's fastest hedgehog can't deal with it I don't think anyone can."

"Well put that way." said Sonic grinning slightly.

"Modest as always Sonic." said Sally.

"Hey what's that supposed to mean?" protested Sonic.

"Hey don't start arguing you two ok." said Manic quickly.

"Good point." said Sonic and Sally together before looking at each other and chuckling.

"Well I'll try my best to hold things together here Sonic." said T2.

"Don't think it's just your job though. I'm sure Links and Miles can deal with stuff if Petya needs you. That's why I put all three of you in charge."

"Yeah I guess so."

"Well it's probably best if we started getting ready." said Sally.

"True Sal, let's do it to it!" replied Sonic.

"I haven't heard you say that in a long time, let's do it!" replied Sally.

Sonic raised his fists and the pair did a quick high five before darting off in different directions. Manic sighed.

"Ah that takes me back." he said slowly.

T2 just chuckled in response.

-----------------------------------------

"Main engines primed, reactor output stable, air wings to lift of positions, ready to go!" said Jet rather enthusiastically.

"Ok people this is it, hit it Jet." said Sonic.

"Roger."

Jet ran his hand across a console pressing a number of controls as he did. The huge ship gave a small jolt and then started to move upwards. Everyone could hear the engines straining slightly as it took off. Sally and Alicia, who were seated near the windows, looked out on the ground below. The rest of the group were clustered together not so far off waving frantically. Alicia started to wave back but she was sure that none of them could see her.

"Lift off successful!" cried Jet.

"Congratulations Jet!" smiled Sonic, "Looks like all your hard work has paid off."

"Seems that way Sonic, bringing the main boosters online."

Looking out of the windows Sonic could see that they had now climbed a fair height. A light whirr signalled the main engines starting up and the transport began to move forwards at a quicker pace, still climbing as it did. Sonic looked around at everyone. Alicia had already been into space as had Jet and Andrew, they were all strapped in looking professional. Chalk was biting her fingers in her seat, Sonic had to remind himself that this was not only Chalk's first time in space but also her first time flying too. Sonic quickly spotted Sally strapping herself in and rushed to his own seat next to her. He fastened a few straps round himself and sat back.

"Everyone set?" he asked.

"Sure are Sonic." replied Sally next to him indicating to herself and Alicia.

"Chalk?" asked Sonic.

"Don't talk to me! Just do it!" cried the rabbit still biting her fingers.

She was strapped in though so Sonic moved on.

"Andrew?"

"Yeah I'm ready. I still don't approve of fuzz ball here flying." replied the human.

"Hey stop calling my fuzz ball or I'll start calling you melon head." protested Jet, "Besides, I've flown this bird before. I know how to handle her."

"He sure does." said Alicia.

"Thanks 'li'."

Andrew still looked against the idea but didn't say anything else.

"Ok that's enough." said Sonic, "Ok Jet, we're all set, punch it."

"Got it Sonic, approaching atmosphere boundary now." replied Jet.

"I just hope there are no ships in orbit." said Sally quietly.

"We'll be fine Sal." said Sonic.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand BINGO! That's it guys we're out of the atmosphere, welcome to space." said Jet.

Andrew now quickly spun to his console and started to press buttons.

"What are you doing?" asked Sonic quickly.

"Looking for any Alliance ships. Like hell am I getting caught on a stolen transport with a group of furries." he replied.

"That's a fine way of saying thanks." said Sonic.

"Thanks. If it wasn't for your kind I'd probably be sitting on a nice big cruiser somewhere or relaxing back at home. I know it was my choice to stay with you lot but it doesn't mean I enjoy it."

"I'll remember that next time I bring you on a mission."

"Sonic be quiet, we have more important things to worry about." snapped Sally.

"You're right, so Andrew, any ships?" said Sonic.

"None that I can see, we're all clear." he replied gruffly.

"Ok Jet you know what to do."

"Got it Sonic, engaging star drive now." replied the cat, "Hang on."

Jet pressed a control and then slid his fingers up three bars on the console. Along with the coded message, the codes they had to break had given them technical specs on how to construct a star drive. Unlike the Alliance drives, that used another realm of space, this star drive simply accelerated the craft to near light speed meaning for very fast transit but not over as large an area as the Alliance drives. As Jet slid his hands over the controls the stars outside of the transport flickered and then became streaks of light as the transport shot forwards leaving two white streaks behind it as it disappeared into the night.

-----------------------------------------

Alicia sat on the roof of the transports cockpit. She had taken her harness off a short while ago and floated up there to think. She had her tail wrapped around a metal pipe to stop her from floating off anywhere. Her breathing came in long deep sighs as if she was trying to calm herself down. The reality of it was that she was. They had so far been travelling on star drive for a few hours now and, according to Jet's calculation, they'd be arriving at the specified co-ordinates in about ten or so minutes. Alicia looked up, or rather down, at the cockpit. Jet sat at the controls still twiddling his thumbs, he hadn't moved since they had taken off. Alicia watched as he reached forwards and checked the computer readout again, he was nervous. Alicia's gaze left Jet and made a move over towards Andrew sitting near to him. The human was asleep in his chair, snoring quietly. Alicia couldn't read him yet, she didn't really know him, so she couldn't tell what he was feeling, but from the look of him he seemed fairly calm. Chalk was floating in mid air just ahead of the main console staring out of the window. Her hands rested lightly on the console holding her still as she did. For her first flight ever Chalk seemed to be doing quite well. Sonic sat at the back of the room with his arms crossed and a sandwich in his hand. He was looking down with a focussed expression on his face. Alicia could tell he was thinking and planning, he put out an aura that said 'don't disturb me' when he did. Sally wasn't in the cockpit but Alicia could here faint singing coming from the cargo bay. The voice sounded slightly shaky giving Alicia an idea of how Sally was feeling. Presently Jet unbuckled his harness and kicked off the floor, flying up next to her and coming to a stop. He quickly wrapped his own tail round the metal bar Alicia had hers wrapped around.

"Heya." he said quickly.

"Hey Jet." replied Alicia, "Everything ok?"

"Yeah yeah, fine. Running like a dream."

"Good to hear."

For a moment neither said anything before Alicia finally spoke again.

"Jet I've been meaning to ask you something."

"Yeah?"

"Well…"

Alicia paused for a moment. Her thoughts drifted back to a moment months ago, sitting at the breakfast bar eating pancakes. A question, a look, an interruption and another question.

"…oh it's nothing I guess." said Alicia smiling.

Jet gave her an odd look before shrugging.

"Well ok." he replied, "Whatever."

Just then a console below started beeping. Jet looked down and pushed off the ceiling, sailing back down to his seat and sitting down.

"What the?" he said slowly.

"Problem Jet?" asked Chalk turning round.

"I dunno…the computer has just detected these odd energy reading all round us. I've never seen anything like them before."

"What?" said Sonic sharply sitting up in his seat.

He pushed himself off the seat and floated over to the console.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Tacheon emissions are off the chart, look!" said Jet pointing to one screen.

Sonic looked as one particular display meter was peaked in the red and not showing any signs of going down.

"Those emissions danger to us?" he asked quickly.

"No but….it's not natural."

"What you mean not natural?!"

Sonic was becoming slightly frantic now. Jet was giving him just enough info at once and not the whole picture, it was frustrating him.

"They are….artificial."

"Artificial!"

Sonic looked out of the window quickly as Jet gave a yell.

"HOLY CRAP!"

The empty space ahead of them gave a small shimmer and with a flash a large craft appeared. Moments later a second appeared to its right and then a third to its left. Jet watched n the scanners as a total of twelve ships appeared around them. Sonic let out a small gulp.

"Sally? SALLY!" he cried.

"Sonic what…oh..!"

Sally just managed to stifle her cry and then looked out of the window.

"What's going on?" she said quickly.

"How the blue hell am I supposed to know?!" cried Sonic obviously frantic.

Alicia had floated down from the ceiling now and was staring out of the window with Jet and Chalk. All three looked completely shocked and the children terrified to boot. Andrew was looking out of the window also, but wasn't looking as shocked as the others.

"Those aren't ours." he said slowly.

"Huh?" said Sonic spinning round, "What you mean?"

"They are from the Earth Alliance." replied Andrew.

"Not from the Alliance, then who are they?" asked Sally.

As if to answer her question the radio crackled and a voice spoke.

"This is squadron "Arc Fire" to Earth vessel. Identify yourself."

"Oh cripes! They think we're from the Alliance." said Jet.

"Well duh!" retorted Sonic, "What kind of ship do you think we're in? I mean…Sally what are you doing?!"

"This is Queen Sally Alicia Acorn of the planet Mobius to "Arc Fire" squadron. State your business." said Sally speaking into the comm.

Sonic just starred at her in disbelief.

"Sally what are you doing?" he cried.

"Simple Sonic." replied Sally turning, "I'm telling them who they are. Remember we were supposed to wait here until something happened? Maybe this is it!"

Sonic just spluttered, it was obvious he didn't know what to say. What came next surprised everyone too.

"Roger that your highness, we've been sent to escort you the rest of the way. We're feeding you a set of co-ordinates, input them into your computer and follow us."

The computer beside Jet gave a bleep as the co-ordinates were received and then the crafts ahead split up, flying in different directions until they came round to form a delta shape ahead of the transport.

"Please engage star drive in three, two, one…"

Jet quickly reached forward and flicked the star drive controls as the craft around them entered star drive also. Sonic spun towards Jet.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Following his instructions." replied Jet calmly giving Sally a grin.

"But…" said Sonic slowly looking at Sally.

"Sonic Hedgehog stop worrying. If they were going to kill us I think they could have done it a long time ago, yes." chuckled Sally.

"Yes but…that's not the point…"

Sonic closed his eyes, sighed and then shrugged before floating back to his chair. Sally meanwhile turned to Jet.

"What are those co-ordinates Jet?" she asked.

Jet smiled and sat back and chuckled.

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." he replied.

"What?"

"Those co-ordinates are for the star system of Alpha Centauri the closest star system to the Earth system. More specifically those co-ordinates are for the star Proxima Centauri, we're heading straight into a sun."

"WHAT?!" cried Sally.

"Told you!" cried Sonic.

"No worries Sonic, I doubt these guys would be following us if we were heading into it. Plus I can cut the star drive if needs be."

"I don't like it either." said Andrew.

"At least I have one supporter." said Sonic.

"Father don't worry. If mother says it'll be alright then it will be." said Alicia floating up next to Sonic, "Right Jet?"

"Right 'licia." the cat replied looking back at the console, "At our speed we won't make our destination for at least another few hours. Think I'm gonna grab a cat nap."

"Funny Jet." chuckled Chalk slipping over the console and planting herself in the pilot seat, "I'll watch over things for you."

"Thanks Chalk."

Jet grabbed the back of a chair and flung himself round, sending him sailing out of the cockpit backwards. Sonic watched him leave and then looked at the console.

"Any further word from them?" he asked.

"You would have heard it if there was Sonic." replied Sally.

"Get them on the comm, I want to talk to them."

Sally turned and opened the comm but received nothing but static. She frowned and fiddled with it for a moment before looking back at Sonic.

"Seems they don't want to talk to you." she said.

"Typical. Well I guess there's nothing we can do for a while. Sorry I over reacted Sally."

"Hey it's your job Sonic don't worry about it. It's not as if this is a pleasure trip or anything."

"Too right Sal, I just hope it doesn't turn out nasty."

-----------------------------------------

A few hours later nothing much had changed. Jet had woken up and was back at the controls as he watched their destination slowly approaching on the scanners. He laced his fingers together as he watched the sun of Alpha Centauri approaching quickly. His hand rested lightly on the star drive controls, he wanted to be ready to deactivate as quickly as possible if it was needed. He gave another glance at the comm. The ships escorting them hadn't spoken a word to them since their initial meeting and Jet was now starting to get worried like Sonic.

Sonic himself still sat in his seat behind Jet. The blue hedgehog was sitting still staring out of the window with his arms folded. A thoughtful expression was plastered right across his face and occasionally he made small grunts or murmurs. Sally and Alicia floated just beside Jet, holding onto his seat for support. They were following Jet's movements carefully, watching him getting more and more edgy by the minute. Chalk wasn't concerned about much right now, in fact she was asleep again. The rabbit snored quietly in her seat, held down by her harness. The final member of the group, Andrew, was pooled over another console examining data on the ships around them gathered from various scans he had performed. The bridge was deadly silent apart from Chalk's snoring when the comm gave a bleep.

"Prepare to shut off star drive on my mark."

Jet scrambled across the controls getting ready to follow through the instructions as Sally grabbed the comm.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Later miss, for now follow my lead VERY closely if you don't want to end up flying into that star. Cut star drive in three, two, ONE!"

Jet slammed his hand on the console and with a dramatic cut in speed the transport fell out of star drive. The jolt woke Chalk from her seat and threw a few untethered objects forwards into the front window. The star was filling the entire window now and their speed was still very high.

"We're gonna hit it!" screamed Alicia in a blind panic.

Everyone gave a massive cringe before the entire transport gave another jolt and slowed. Jet blinked and started checking over the console.

"Well I'll be!" he exclaimed.

The transport gave another jolt and slowed once more. Looking out of the window they could see the crafts around them were still at their side. As the transport gave another jolt they watched as all the crafts formed a wave like bubble head of them which broke and resulted in the craft slowing down.

"Well well well." smiled Jet.

"What is it Jet?" asked Sally.

"That's a gravity field and an artificial one at that. There's gotta be something around here that's producing it." replied the cat.

"Correct." came a voice over the comm, "Sounds like you have a very intelligent person onboard. The Saratoga is producing this field to slow us down enough to stop us from crashing into the star."

"Saratoga? That a ship or something?" asked Sally absently.

"Yes. You'll see it soon enough. Breaking field barrier…now."

The entire window view screen gave a massive static crackle and then faded away. Everyone just stared in awe. Ahead of them, invisible before now, was a huge ship. It was at least two miles long and looked like it had been built using parts from a million other ships. The ships bow was pointed and had three long radio masts sticking out of it. The point bulked out to the mid part of the ship upon which sat a raised section, obviously the bridge. After the bulk the ship tapered off into a thin beam that ran to the back of the ship. On the back of the ship were four large engines, mounted on fins in an X formation. Sticking downwards and outwards from the thin beam just ahead of the engines were two long rectangular structures. As they drew nearer it was clear to see that these were docking bays for smaller ships and a large collection was currently docked with the larger ship. Across the entire ship's hull large weapon placements were visible. Everything from small guns to two large cannons mounted on either side of the hull.

"Cloaking technology!" exclaimed Jet slowly, "Man what is this?"

"You'll find out soon enough." came a reply over the comm, "Prepare for landing, the Saratoga will be bringing you in so step back from the controls."

Jet understood this process, he'd been through it a couple of times now. Sitting back he watched as the transport became encased in a gravity field and slowly started to be drawn in towards the massive ship.

"Well here goes nothing." said Sally biting her lip.

-----------------------------------------

Sonic and Sally stood side by side with the others behind then. The transport had touched down in the ships landing bay a few moments ago and they now stood in front of the exit looking at it. As of yet no-one had dared to open the door. Sally rubbed the side of her head and took a long breath.

"Well…better get this show rolling." she said reaching forwards.

She ran her hand along a small electronic pad on the wall and the door gave a hiss and slid open. Sally took another breath and then stepped through the door, taking a quick glance around her to see what was going on. Most of the landing bay was deserted except for a small group of humans standing not so far off. At the front of the group stood an important looking man wearing a military uniform but it was different to that of the Earth Alliance. Behind him stood six other men who looked like ship guards who all held some sort of rifle in their arms. Sally stood at the entrance of the shuttle completely still not sure on how to proceed. That was soon decided by her as the group in front of them stepped forwards, the main man speaking as they did.

"Welcome onboard. We've been expecting you for some time." he said.

"I…er…who are you?" asked Sally stuttering slightly.

"Captain Harry Thompson commander of this ship, and you?" he replied.

Sally rose her head and put on a professional look as she replied.

"Queen Sally Alicia Acorn of the planet Mobius."

"Ah, then it was you my boys spoke to earlier. Honoured to meet you your highness, my commander has been waiting eagerly ever since we made first contact. I believe there are others in your group yes?"

"Yes, yes there are six of us."

"Ah good, just as the instructions asked. Care to introduce us? Then we shall escort you to elsewhere."

"Yes, yes alright." said Sally turning round, "Alright everyone come on out. It's ok."

First out was Sonic. After Sally had called he wasn't so unsure anymore and strode out purposefully. The group greeted him respectively for a person of his position. Alicia and Jet came out side by side, Jet grinning broadly. He was very much enjoying the moment and it showed. Chalk received a bit of a shocked response. The rabbit walked out of the shuttle with Catrina securely mounted into position beside her and it took a swift few words from Sally to stop the group from blasting her apart as she stepped down. After that had been cleared up Sally looked back into the shuttle. There was only one more person left and, now she thought about it, might cause more problems than Chalk.

"Andrew come on out." she called.

There was a moment of silence and then the tall form of Andrew appeared in the doorway of the shuttle. The captain looked completely shocked.

"What is this?!" he cried.

"What you mean?" asked Sonic raising an eyebrow, "He's part of the group."

"You said nothing of a human being onboard and certainly not one from the Earth Alliance."

"You didn't set any rules on who could come." replied Sonic, "You just said six people. He just joined our cause a few months back, he's already shown his worth and although I don't fully trust him yet he's done nothing to stop or hamper us."

"This is not what we had planned." said the captain, "You've brought an Alliance man into our midst and that is unforgivable, men!"

With a swift movement the six men around him brought their rifles to bare on the small group. Sonic and Sally just stared back completely shocked. Chalk gave a small growl and started to run her hand slowly along her gun.

"I told you coming was a mistake." she said slowly getting ready to swing the huge gun round.

"Not so fast." said one of the guards swinging his rifle round and pointing it right at her head, "One more move and I'll take your head off, now hands in the air rabbit."

Chalk glared at him and then slowly raised her hands, closing her eyes as she did.

"Disarm that one and take them all down to the brig until we figure out what to do with them." ordered the captain.

The guards around him nodded and while five kept their guns trained on the group the sixth stepped forwards and disarmed Chalk, placing the huge gun some distance away before returning.

"Ok now move." said the captain.

"Wait! What about this mission? Why are you doing this?" asked Sally quickly.

"I got no time to answer your questions now. I have to consult with our commander. Until I do you'll be confined to the brig."

"Now hang on a minute!" protested Sonic, "We came here under good faith and…"

"Sonic we better do as he says." said Sally.

"What?"

"We've got no chance against them, best to go along for now."

Sonic gave sigh and then shrugged, surrendering to Sally judgement.

"Ok move."

The group was slowly filled out of the hanger, most of them with their heads bowed. Sonic was thinking hard, what were they going to do now? There was no chance of escape and no chance of rescue, what were they going to do?


	3. Friends And Foe

Chapter 3 - Friends and Foe

Sonic sat on the floor of a cell staring at the wall. He had been sitting in this position for a good few hours now and before that had been pacing back and forth across his cell for an hour. All six in the group were in separate cells next to each other and for some of them the situation wasn't sitting right. Jet and Alicia had been imprisoned on the Phantom and Chalk had been locked up in a military base near Never Lake meaning the three of them sat glumly at the back of their cells deep in thought. They hadn't even touched the plate of food they'd been given.

Sonic looked down at his own empty plate. Quite surprisingly the food was good. These guys certainly didn't treat their prisoners quite so horribly as the Alliance which was fortunate. Sonic looked up at the other two members of the group. Andrew stood leaning against the side of his cell giving the guards outside evil glares from time to time. Occasionally one was shot in Sonic's direction as if to say _"This is your fault."_. Sonic took no notice of these glares though and for the most part didn't notice them. The only one left in the group was Sally. She was pressed up against the bars looking in alternating direction down the corridor. Sonic could see her mind ticking over, going through plans and stuff as she always seemed to do. Sonic himself had long since abandoned the chance of escape for now. The guards outside were one reason but the realisation that he knew nothing about the ship was another. The maze of passages from the landing bay to the cells was a blur to him and he wouldn't have known where to go for one second. Besides they weren't scheduled for execution or anything so he wasn't too against sitting tight, they still might be able to work this out. A further thirty or so minutes passed by with much the same happening before footsteps were heard coming down the corridor. Sonic pricked up his ears and listened as they drew closer before a military officer came into view. He walked to one of the guards and whispered something in his ear. As much as he strained, Sonic couldn't hear what he said but the guard looked slightly shocked and then nodded. The officer gave the guard a nod and then walked off leaving everything still for a moment. Finally the guard stepped forwards and ran a small card through the lock on Sonic's cell. The door slid open with a hiss and Sonic stood up slowly. He looked at the guard but made no move to leave or escape.

"What's up?" he asked.

"The commander wants to see you…all of you." replied the guard.

The other couple of guards stepped forwards and unlocked the other cells but for the moment nobody left. Sally was now looking at Sonic, waiting for his lead.

"Oh yes? Sudden change of heart eh?" he said.

"Don't get cocky." said the guard flatly, "I just do what I'm told ok."

Sonic was impressed, the guard had managed to take one of his remarks without making one in response and had responded flatly and frankly. Sonic took a few steps forwards and stand next to the guard at the cell door.

"Well if that's how it works around here I guess we best do as were told too eh. Everyone! Up!" he said.

On the command Sally darted from her cell and raced round to Sonic, hugging him tightly. Jet seemed to have received a jolt of energy and walked from his cell, Alicia and Chalk joining him a few moments later. Andrew slowly approached the door of his cell and spoke.

"Me too?" he asked.

"Yes you as well." replied the guard waving his gun up the corridor, "Come on everyone move."

"Don't want to keep your boss waiting eh." said Sonic as he set of behind a guard.

The group formed up around him with one guard leading and two more behind. They slowly worked their way through the ships passages, up various lifts and along more corridors. They started taking note of various things stencilled on the walls. Messages detailing ship locations, floor levels and directions were everywhere much like on the Alliance ships. Sally had first hand experience of this, those messages had saved her life nearly a year ago. Finally they came to a large set of double doors and the lead guard stopped. He pressed a small button on a console beside the door and spoke.

"Unit 2 here with the guests ma'am." he said.

"Good show them in." replied a feminine voice.

The door slid open and the guard ushered them inside. The room after the door was fairly large and looked like something the royal palace would have had. A long table filled the centre of the room surrounded by a host of chairs. Around the edges of the room stood small pillars holding vases with plants in them, long old looking carpets were draped across the walls and long strip lights hung above. At the head of the table, at the furthest point in the room, sat a woman. She had long blonde hair and wore a uniform similar to the guards, which was a white colour with golden trim, but slightly more lavish. A few tassels dangled from various places on her uniform and a set of red shoulder pads lay across her shoulder. She didn't look too old, maybe around 40 but then none of the furries were good at judging human ages. Next to her sat the captain they had met earlier, Harry Thompson. The women stood as they walked in and opened her arms in a gesture of welcome.

"Hello there, I hope the trip hasn't been too stressful." she said.

"Stressful? Well not exactly that, more like terrifying at times." replied Sonic walking forward.

"I apologies for that but you did give us a nasty surprise."

"Well you should have been more specific in your instructions."

The guards at the door gave a small cough causing the women to look up.

"Oh yes, you're dismissed." she said.

"Wait outside." put in the captain.

"Captain Thompson will you stop contradicting my orders?" said the women looking round.

"This is my ship ma'am." replied the captain.

"Yes yes!" she replied shaking her head.

The guards left closing the door behind them and leaving them alone in the room. The women indicated to the seats around the table and slowly one by one the group sat down. The woman was at the head of the table with the captain sat next to her. Along her left sat Sonic, Alicia and Chalk and on her right sat Sally, Jet and Andrew. The group sat watching her for a moment before she spoke.

"Well I'm guessing none of you know who I am…or maybe one of you does." she said looking at Andrew.

Andrew squinted at her and then shrugged.

"You look familiar from somewhere but I'm unable to pin it down." he replied.

"Well then let me introduce myself, my names Silvia, Silvia Higara."

Andrew blinked and looked like he had suddenly swallowed a melon. Jet's hands hit the table top at much the same time.

"No way!" he exclaimed.

"Forgive me, two of you apparently know who I am." replied Silvia, "Where have you heard of me?"

"My…my friend Jeremy told me about you just before…"

Jet fell silent and looked away. The loss of Jeremy a year ago was still with him and it still pained him to think about it.

"Ah…I take it you mean Jeremy Francis but if you know him you must be…Jet Mathews right."

"Prower, Jet Prower." replied Jet looking back, "My mothers name was a cover name."

"A cover name eh…interesting but necessary I guess."

"Miss Higara!" spluttered Andrew, "I…everyone thinks you're dead!"

"Yes they do, and I want it to stay that way until we're ready." she replied.

"What?"

Silvia looked closely at Andrew who looked back equally closely. They looked at each other for a few moments before Silvia pulled back.

"I think we can trust him." she said.

"Miss Higara may I interject? It's too early to tell. For all we know he's an Earth spy." said Harry.

The captain leaned over and looked directly at Andrew, who returned his look.

"I don't trust him." he continued.

"Well excuse me! Next time I'll stay home!" replied Andrew.

"Andrew joined our group a little while ago. He helped us defeat an enemy and in doing so put himself in a position where he couldn't return to the Alliance." said Sally.

"That so eh?" asked Silvia looking at Andrew, "Well for now I'll have to bow to the captain's guidance…until we know your story completely."

"Hmm!" replied Andrew before sighing and looking at her, "Very well miss president."

"President?" asked Sonic.

"Oh yes, I should tell you about that too." said Silvia with a small giggle, "I suppose only Andrew and maybe Jet here will know about that but I was once the President of the Earth Alliance."

"Huh?!" cried Chalk.

"Wha?!" said Sonic and Alicia together.

Sally just blinked a few times and Jet nodded.

"I kinda remember that." said Jet, "Jeremy told me about it…kinda. He said you were the youngest president or something."

"Yes Jet, the youngest and also a female. I started my rule when I was twenty two. For the most part it was easy going but then one little event changed all that."

"What?" asked Sonic.

Silvia indicated towards Jet before continuing.

"Simply put, his mother arriving. It was quite a surprise to say the least. Was she an alien? What was she doing here? How had she gotten here? Everything was soon answered when she finally decided to talk. It was another surprise to hear her speaking in our language too but once things were cleared up I made a decision to help her get home."

Silvia stopped and shook her head slowly.

"That must have angered them even more."

"Sorry?" asked Sally.

"Let me explain. Over the five years I was in power I made…a lot of decision, some of which didn't sit well with certain people. I concentrated on the people you see, a noble goal but it did leave other areas lacking namely the military. I saw no reason for a military or for military research. Why did we need it? We weren't at war with anyone and as far as we knew there wasn't anyone else out there. Your mother's appearance soon changed that Jet but anyway. My competitors began to get restless with myself being in power. They began to move secretly to get rid of me. They saw your kind as a threat and decided they wanted someone else in power who would deal with you. That came to a climax two years after Jet's mother arrival. I was on a business trip to another continent and my jet was sabotaged. We crashed in the mountains and we were all presumed dead. However a search team was sent and amazing I was found alive. The rest of the crew and all my staff, some of them my close friends, were dead. I was taken to a hospital and then transferred back to my home to rest."

Silvia again shook her head and then looked up at the ceiling slightly.

"Rest is not what I got. My competitors tried once more to get rid of me. I was resting in the gardens a few weeks later when my entire home went up in a huge fireball. Later investigation blamed it on a gas leak. A gas leak! Some people are too naïve but anyway. I was knocked out by the blast even though I was outside and two of my personal guards that were with me at the time finally saw the truth of the matter. I had earlier expressed my concerns about the plane crash and now the explosion at my home made it click that someone was after my life. They picked me up and we disappeared of the face of the planet. Disappeared is right too, we fled to one of the outer colonies using fake ID and travel papers. It wasn't too difficult for a president to get hold of those types of things. Once in hiding I sat and waited. Trying to pull as many facts together as I could in an attempt to work out who was after my life. The answer I got wasn't to my liking. I checked it three times and every time the same name came back to me, the name of my vice president Jacob Kidderminster."

"What?!" cried Andrew looking up, "The president!"

"Yes, I couldn't believe it myself." replied Silvia.

"Why would your vice president want you dead?" asked Sally.

"Simply put…power. He wanted the power. I never saw it either. I was a naïve twenty seven year old and couldn't imagine anyone wanting me dead, especially not my vice president. He helped me on nearly every decision I made, congratulated me on the ones that went right and even took the blame for some that went wrong but it happened. Soon after I was presumed dead at me home he was appointed president and started his military operation that has eventually come to what is going on now. However things haven't gone exactly as he had planned."

"How so?" asked Sonic rocking back in his chair and putting his feet up on the table.

"They moved too fast." replied Silvia giving Sonic an odd look, "The time between their assassination attempts was only a few weeks and it made people suspicious like my personal guards. Some people within the military didn't like the idea that my death had been an accident and began to form small secret groups. We found out about these groups and brought them all together. What followed was a military coup with about twenty percent of the military breaking away from the Alliance. Jacob sent everything after them and only a small fraction of the ships managed to escape and meet up here. Jacob was satisfied he had stopped the coup and was unaware I had started it. He relaxed and settled back into his program of military building. Meanwhile we waited here in secret, slowly building up our strength. This ship was the first thing constructed. Many of the ships that had escaped were heavily damaged and unrepairable with our level of support. Therefore we scavenged from them, taking pieces from all over to make this ship."

"The problem is that this ship isn't fit for combat." said Harry beside her, "If she got hit with enough heavy weapons fire she'd probably split apart at the welds. We basically just took the damaged ships and stuck them together."

"Yes but then it was all we could do at that time Harry." said Silvia, "The Saratoga now serves as a big port and gathering place. The cloak and gravity fields make the ship virtually impossible to detect unless a ship came very close to the star of Alpha Centauri itself. We've been able to design a very effective heat shield from the suns radiation and most Alliance ships can't get as close as we can, thus it is a perfect hiding place. Besides they think they stopped the rebellion so they aren't looking for us."

Silvia stopped and leaned forwards, looking at each and every person in the group.

"The thing is we're still here and we're still willing. We've just had to bide our time and wait for the correct moment to act. Last year ol' Jacob made one critical error, he decided to invade your world. He thought he'd have it over and done with in a few months but you've hung on for just over a year. This is not what he expected and it is worrying him. I have to commend your skills, I've seen the Earth Alliances full strength and for you to hold on this long is incredible."

"Well it's nothing really." smirked Sonic.

"Whether it is or not you are the door for us to act. You see Jacob has tried to show himself off as a president similar to myself. He doesn't want anyone to suspect him as my assassin or that he is running his own private war. Almost every person on Earth is oblivious to the war he has running with your world. He doesn't want anyone to know…and we intend to show them. To do this we need help. We haven't been able to gather any more help from within the military and we've gone as far as we can with covert operation. Our only other choice was to find new allies and what do you know, Jacob supplies us with some. I'd like to ask you to join our fight against him. I'd like you to help us help you. Please."

Silvia fell silent and looked at everyone. Everyone in turn looked at Sonic. Not even Sally was willing to make this decision and as Sonic was king it was up to him. The blue hedgehog sat with his arms crossed and feet on the table as he had been for a while now. His eyes were closed and it almost looked like he was asleep. After a moment he spoke.

"I gotta say miss Higara, you've got one hell of a story there." he said slowly opening his eyes and looking at her, "I have to say I've never trusted humans. Our past experience with your kind even before the Alliance has virtually cemented that but then if I read your story right you don't even trust your own kind."

Sonic sat up and looked directly at Silvia.

"Maybe Sally was right when she said some humans were different. I've always trusted her, even when it seemed I didn't, and I'm not about to stop now. Miss former president, you've got yourself a deal."

He put out his hand and slowly Silvia reached forwards and shook it. She was almost crying as she did.

"Thank you, thank you so much." she said.

"No need for thanks, getting the Alliance off my world is thanks enough." replied Sonic.

"Yes we will help you, and maybe you can help me take back my government too."

"If we can we will."

Silvia gave a smile and sighed. The peaceful mood was shattered a second later by a cry.

"Alright!"

Everyone looked round to see Jet had leaped out of his chair and was in a position to leap onto the table in joy.

"You sound just like Tails did when he was a kid." said Sally with a glowing smile.

"Ah the energy of youth." chuckled Silvia.

Sonic looked over at Jet and then back at Silvia.

"You know it's occurred to me that you've introduced yourself but we have not done the same. Sonic T Hedgehog, king of Mobius at your service." he said putting his hand out again.

Silvia shook it again and smiled.

"Pleased to meet you your highness. Who might the others be?" she asked.

"This is Sally Acorn, my wife and queen." said Sonic indicating towards Sally.

Sally reached forward and shook hands with Silvia.

"My first child Alicia."

Alicia gave a small wave and a smile from her seat.

"Looks like you already know of Jet Prower here."

Jet gave a grin and a wave like salute.

"There's Andrew Pierce at the end there."

The human gave a swift nod at Silvia.

"And finally we have Chalk, one of my close friends."

The rabbit stood up from her seat and bowed.

"Greeting's miss president." she said sweetly.

"Aaaaah! If I'm not mistaken you were the one who was armed in the docking bay."

"Yes ma'am." replied Chalk.

"Then I have something for you."

Silvia pressed a button on a small panel in front of her and a small buzzer was heard. A moment later a guard entered through the door carrying a large and very familiar looking gun.

"Catrina!" cried Chalk.

"You may have it back now." said Silvia

"Are you sure that is wise miss." said Harry from her side.

"These people have done nothing aggressive towards us and have given me no reason not to trust them. As they are part of my plan you can't go over riding my decision about them." replied Silvia getting slightly pompous as she spoke.

"Very well miss Higara."

Chalk, meanwhile had stepped forwards and taken her gun from the guard. With a swift move the metallic boom attached to her belt extended and clipped into place on the guns underside. Chalk slipped her hand onto the handle and there was a small metallic click as her cybernetic parts interfaced with the gun. She swung it back and forth a few times, making sure not to point it at anyone and then returned it to a ready position at her side. The gun folded up beside her and she unclipped her hands from the handle. She gave another bow in Silvia's direction.

"Thank you." she said.

"Not a problem my dear." replied Silvia looking at Chalk with some interest, "Now I think we would all be ready for some food yes?"

"I would think so. The stuff we got in the cells wasn't that appetising." replied Sally.

"Well let me make it up to you then. This way please."

Silvia stood and motioned to another door at the back of the room. Slowly the others rose to their feet and followed her out of the room.

-----------------------------------------

Sonic sat picking his teeth with a toothpick. His stomach was exceedingly full after meal he had just had, in a word it had been excellent. Silvia had earlier guided them down a level and into a large dining hall. Sonic kept being surprised by this ship, for a military vessel it looked more like the Royal Palace to him. Small talk had been exchanged for a short while before the main meal had arrived, starting with a rather nice soup which he had been told was apple and parsnip. The main course had been steak or a pasta dish. Sonic and Jet had opted for the steak whereas everyone else had gone for the pasta. Desert had been the best though, an apple and cinnamon tart with whipped cream.

They now sat drinking coffee and nibbling on small mints, everything seemed way too homely to be real and Sonic kept feeling the urge to pinch himself. As the meal had progressed Sonic and Sally, with small interjections from the others, had explained the past of Mobius to Silvia. Alicia, Jet and Chalk had been there for some of it but Sonic and Sally had been in it since the beginning to the three of them were quite alright with them telling the story. Andrew for the most part had been silent and, flanked by two guards standing next to his chair, didn't look to comfortable either. Silvia had stopped them at various points to cross reference times and call up other info on a small console next to her. Sally had been doing likewise, calling upon Nicole's vast achieves to check certain details and stuff. Finally the tale had ended with them arriving on the ship and for the moment everything was quiet. Silvia looked back and forth across the assembled group.

"Well that's quite a history you have there." she exclaimed.

"Yes." replied Sally.

"I never knew you're world was so…different. It's truly astounding."

"Why thank you." replied Chalk giving a stretch.

Catrina folded out slightly allowing Chalk to stretch and then folded back against her side. The rabbit had yet to disarm herself but Silvia seemed comfortable with the huge weapon being present. If anything she seemed intrigued by it.

"Miss Chalk may I ask you something?" she said.

"Just Chalk and yes of course." replied Chalk.

"I'd like to ask about your weapon. It appears like you…interface with it?"

"You mean these?"

Chalk held up her hand to show the metallic parts covering her fingers. Silvia gave a nod.

"I don't know myself really. I was part of an experiment which I have no knowledge of…I can't remember."

Chalk looked away to one side and sighed.

"Hey Chalk!" called Sonic, "Buck up will you? Everything's not lost you know. I doubt that Robutnik can erase memories, you'll remember eventually."

"Yes, its just…"

Chalk looked up and nodded firmly.

"Yes Sonic." she said equally firmly.

"Chalk, it might seem inappropriate to ask but would you mind if our research boys had a look at those implants?" asked Silvia.

Chalk looked round at her, eyes wide in a sort of stiffened panic. Sonic quickly looked at Silvia.

"Our Chalk doesn't like labs or researchers that much Silvia." he said.

"In fact she's terrified of them." whispered Sally.

Silvia looked bad for asking the question.

"I'm sorry, forgive me. You don't have to do anything you don't want to."

Chalk calmed slowly and took a long drink before looking back at the rest of them.

"What would you want to do?" she asked nervously.

"Nothing major at all. Just a few simple scans and maybe a little surface analysis." replied Silvia.

"No machines? No needles or capsules?"

"Nothing like that at all. Maybe a few hand held scanners, they look a bit like this computer Sally has."

"Well….ok, but only if Sonic comes too."

"Of course."

Chalk returned to her drink and remained silent for quite some time afterwards. The others knew how much the events with Robotnik had scarred her and were impressed she'd agreed to this. Maybe she was getting over it? The topic was swiftly changed by Jet a moment later.

"Miss president can I ask something?" he said slowly, munching on a mint.

"Yes feel free." replied Silvia.

"You said earlier that you don't have much military strength but I'm confused. What about that Ion Beam Frigate? The big one you sent in to help us escape a year ago. Those fighters you have looked impressive too."

Silvia chuckled slightly and leaned back, sipping her coffee.

"Yes but you see one problem remains Jet. We don't have the numbers. Our tech is advanced but against a full Alliance fleet we don't stand a chance."

"But that frigate could plough through anything right?"

"Jet do you have any idea how much energy that frigate put out?"

"No…a lot?"

"More than a lot Jet, try insane. That one shot we took at the Phantom completely fried the entire cannon structure. Yes it took the ship out but it cost us a ship in return. We couldn't even begin to repair the damage to the cannon systems so we were left with one choice, scavenge it for parts. Bits of that frigate are scattered all over this ship and a few others we have. The bits we couldn't use we had to send into the sun to make sure it wouldn't be found. You see Jet that's why we need help."

"Oh."

The cat looked away slightly disheartened. Silvia sighed and started tapping her hands together slowly, looking slightly irritated by the situation she was in.

"So what kind of help were you wanting from us?" asked Sally.

"Well up until this point we haven't made much forwards progress. We've relied on staying hidden and slipping covert operatives into the Alliance to find out what we needed." replied Silvia turning to face Sally, "When we heard of you we decided to intercept and make partial contact. Sorry to say but not everyone thought you could be a good ally at first and insisted on a test. One year, if you could survive one year and manage to decode our message then you might prove worthwhile."

"So much for confidence all round." said Sonic.

"I'm sorry but we couldn't risk it. If you had succumb to the force of the Alliance then we would have looked elsewhere, harsh as it might sound." replied Silvia leaning forwards with a smile, "The truth though, is that you didn't and I for one am quite pleased."

"You for one?" said Sonic raising an eyebrow, "So are we but I tell you it's been no picnic."

"Yes I understand. Your story isn't that cheery I have to say, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right. I'd like you to become tactical resources. Help us find the chinks in the Alliance and use them to our advantage. You seem to have done a lot of that."

"Yes a lot." replied Sally with a nod, "Sonic?"

The hedgehog was yet again resting his feet on the table. He looked up and nodded once.

"Sure I guess so…but I don't like being called a resource." he said.

"Bad choice of words, does advisor sound better?" asked Silvia.

"Better yes."

"So what would we do?" asked Alicia.

"Depends on what you can do." said Silvia, "It seems Jet here is able to pilot Earth tech, which I have to say is mightily impressive for one so young."

Jet blushed heavily at the comment and looked away slightly.

"Well I…" he mumbled.

Silvia chuckled and looked at the others as if so say _"Well?"._

"I don't know where my skills would come in handy on a battleship." said Sonic, "Being able to run at mach one wouldn't land me any other job than a message boy."

Sally looked at him with a slight smile which Sonic caught quickly.

"I am NOT being a message boy!" he said defensively.

"We'll find something for you to do." chuckled Sally turning to Silvia, "Myself and Nicole make quite a team when it comes to plan formulation and strategies. My daughter is exceedingly athletic and has a great head for problems. Jet has supplied us with more information on the Alliance than I ever thought possible. He's also an ace pilot as you said. And Chalk is…err…very skilled in large weaponry."

"Thanks Sally." nodded Chalk from her seat.

"Well for now we'll leave the assignments until later. Right now I've got something else to show you, this ship for starts. A little tour and then some rest I think, you'll probably be tired from the trip."

"Amongst other things yes." replied Sonic standing up, "But a tour would be interesting."

"Very well this way."

The group got up slowly, Alicia taking a quick gulp to finish her coffee before joining the others. As Andrew got up though Silvia stopped him.

"I'm sorry but you'll no longer be able to accompany us." she said.

"Huh?" said Sonic turning round.

"What?" asked Andrew.

"We've spoken of too much in front of you already and the captain and I are not prepared to show you any more until we know that we can trust you completely. For the time you'll be confined to quarters."

"Hang on a minute!" said Sonic, "He may be Alliance material but we've spent a good few months with him. I don't trust him completely myself but I've not allowed that to interfere with how I run things. Remember that if we hadn't met him this little meeting wouldn't be happening. It was Andrew that helped Jet crack your codes in the first place."

"Yes I know." said Silvia sharply, "But unlike you, we are in a slightly more risky situation. You have my word he will not be harmed in any way and when we trust him enough we'll allow him to join you again."

"Now…"

"Sonic we best do as she says. Look at the position she is in and remember the position you were in when we first met him." said Sally calmly.

Sonic shook his head and then threw up his arms.

"Fine I'll go along with it." said Andrew, "Believe me I don't like being in this situation any more than you do. I'd much rather be back at my post not knowing any of this but…"

Andrew looked at Silvia and nodded once.

"…but Madam President, I was one of those people who liked your time in office, I respect you."

"They all say that…but I hope that this time it's true." said Silvia.

She looked over Andrew's shoulder and gave a nod at the two guards. They stepped forwards and stood next to Andrew.

"These two will show you to your quarters. If you need anything just let them know." she said.

"A beer and a TV." replied Andrew.

Silvia nodded at the guards again and then turned away as the guards guided Andrew from the room.

"Now how about that tour?"

-----------------------------------------

The next few days passed by slowly for the most part. Slowly over time the crew of the ship adjusted to having the furries around and the group soon found themselves participating in various activities. Sonic, after firmly refusing to be a message boy, had joined Silvia in going over various pieces of data that came in from the Coalition's spies. Sally was always by his side offering her advice and opinions and together the three of them formed a good team and Silvia found herself implementing plans that she wouldn't even have thought of if they hadn't been around.

Jet and Alicia found themselves in the hanger bay for the most part. Jet's knowledge of Earth systems meant that the workforce in the hanger bay often called on him with problem. Jet was more than happy to help if he could and apart from that he liked it anyway. Like Tails he had a knack and a liking for tinkering. Alicia was using her athletic ability to the extreme on frequent occasions. The slightly lower gravity conditions of the loading bay enabled her to throw herself around the gantries in the bay with ease. Being a squirrel she used her tail quite a bit and it hadn't taken her long to get the hang of it. She was constantly swinging back and forth, delivering messages, tools and equipment across the bay.

Chalk was for the most part relaxing in her quarters. Two days after their arrival she had finally gone to the lab, accompanied by Sonic and Silvia. It had started out fine but after a short while the lab technicians got a little too carried away and Chalk had freaked at one of the particular instruments. The resulting chaos led to a fair amount of damage to the lab and Chalk sitting in a corner shaking. Sonic had promptly taken her from the lab back to her room and she had remained their for the most part recovering. Sonic and Sally had looked in on her from time to time and Chalk was more or less calm now.

As time continued Sonic began to get restless. He found himself searching the databanks for information on Mobius and the rest of his friends. He didn't like just sitting around without knowing what was going on back home. Were they alright? Silvia had caught him at it twice now but had been sympathetic and understanding about it. It must have been a week or so after their arrival when Sonic sat looking over an electronic pad of data but really he didn't feel up to it. His feet kept twitching, wanting some sort of action.

"Fidgeting again I see." came a voice.

Sonic jumped slightly and turned round. Standing in the doorway to the room was Silvia. She stood up and walked towards him.

"How's the analysis going?" she asked.

"Badly." said Sonic with some mild irritism.

He threw the pad at the table beside him sending it clattering to a stop a few feet away. He rolled his head back and groaned.

"This is not my style. Sally is better at figures than me."

"I noticed but you are helping."

"I guess but I'd prefer to be out their doing something."

Silvia gave a wry smile as she sat down across the table from him, Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"What?" he asked.

"I might just have what you want."

"How so?"

"Well we've been working on a new piece of tech for a while now. Originally we had planned to let our ace pilots use them but I've been thinking about it recently and decided to show it to you."

"New tech? What kind of new tech?"

"You'll see. Round up your friends and meet me in the port side hanger bay in one hour. Section Alpha 12."

"Alpha 12? You said that section was restricted to all but top level officers."

"Yes, yes I did. One hour."

With that Silvia got up and left the room. Sonic sat for a minute puzzling over what she had just said. It was certainly interesting and better than looking at lists of data. He picked himself up and, leaving the pad on the table, shot from the room. The fast moving blur shot across the level and then down a set of stairs to the next level. Once there it stopped and waited beside a lift for a few minutes before it got impatient and took the stairs again down several more levels to the residential deck. There it stopped and opened the door to one of the room. Sally looked up as Sonic entered.

"Finished already?" she asked.

"Not even started." replied Sonic, "Something else came up, Silvia wants up down in the hanger deck in an hour."

"Oh? Where in the hanger?"

"Section Alpha 12."

"The restricted area?" asked Sally raising an eyebrow, "Why there?"

"No idea Sal, I'm just the….oh boy."

"What?"

"She turned me into a message boy."

Sally looked at Sonic for a moment and then broke out a fit of the giggles. Sonic placed his hands on his hips and tapped his foot slowly.

"Sally."

"Ahem….sorry Sonic, one hour?"

"One hour."

"I best get Alicia ready then. 'Licai? Alicia come on out."

"Yes mom?" said the squirrel appearing from another room.

"We have a meeting to attend." said Sally.

"A meeting? What about?"

"Sonic?"

"You got me. She wouldn't tell me." replied Sonic with a shrug, "Just make sure you two get yourself down to the hanger on time ok. I'm going to get Chalk and then I'll be after Jet. Alicia any idea where he is?"

"He should be in the hanger right now. He's helping some guys on one of those fighters." replied Alicia.

"Right, thanks. Later guys."

With that Sonic turned and darted from the room sending paper and loose objects flying. Sally and Alicia looked at each other and shrugged. Sonic carried on down the corridor for a short moment and then skidded to a halt at another door. He pressed the alert buzzer and waited. He got no response so pressed it again and called.

"Chalk? Hey Chalk you in there?"

"Huh? Wha?" came a sleepy reply.

"Chalk its Sonic, I gotta speak to you."

"Huh? Oh ok."

The door slowly slid open and Sonic walked in. Sonic's quarters were large because he shared with Sally and Alicia but Chalk's was fairly small. Everything was in one room which included a bed, small living area, an equally small kitchen unit and then in a separated part of the room a shower and bathroom. Chalk was propped up on her bed looking a little ragged, it was obvious Sonic had disturbed her during a deep sleep.

"What do you want pest?" she said with a yawn.

"Chalk, Silvia wants us all down in the hanger bay in an hour. Big meeting."

"I'd rather not Sonic. I'm still a little frail from earlier."

"I know Chalk but this sound big, and she did say she wanted all of us."

"Ok, I'll be there."

"You feeling alright Chalk?"

"Not as such. Ever since that incident at the lab I've been having flashbacks of when I worked for Robotnik. The tech in that place was just too close to what Robotnik's looked like."

Chalk sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Sonic walked over and sat down next to her.

"Robotnik isn't completely gone you know. I'll have to die before that happens."

"Huh? Chalk what do you mean?"

"What do you think I mean?" replied Chalk lifting her hand up and showing her robotic parts, "Half of my body is covered in robotic parts from when he changed me. I wish I could get rid of it, rip it from my body, I just want to be free of it."

Sonic remained quiet, looking at Chalk with a heavy expression.

"You think these people would be able to remove it?" she asked.

"I dunno Chalk. Guess all you can do is ask, although you know that it'll entail the lab if they can."

Chalk looked down, her ears flopping down in front of her eyes.

"I know Sonic, it's a double edged sword. Continue like this or confront it, I don't know what to do."

"Chalk you've lived with this for years now, you'll make it. Just don't give up ok."

"I won't Sonic, I won't. An hour?"

"Yup, in section Alpha 12."

"That's restricted."

"Yes but that's where Silvia said to meet."

"Ok then, I think I'll have a shower before hand."

"Good idea, you freshen up and come on down. It'll do you good to get out of this room anyway."

"You're right Sonic, thanks."

"No problem, I'll see you in an hour."

Chalk gave a nod as Sonic headed to the door and then left, speeding down the corridor towards the hanger bay where Jet should be. Chalk sat for a moment before getting up and closing the door. A small smile spread across her face as she turned and headed into the shower.

The blue blur shot along the deck and this time waited for an elevator to the lower level. Once there it shot along a long gantry that ran the length of the ships core and then darted downwards to the side heading into the hanger bay near the tail of the ship. The bay was busy as always with people bustling one way and another with various things. In the bay sat a long line of fighter crafts. They were identical to the ones that had rescued Links' group from the Phantom a year back and were the Coalitions standard fighter. Around most of them nothing was going on, an odd mechanic here and there, but one fighter had quite a gathering. Sonic smiled and shook his head, it could only be one thing. He shot down the gantries and skidded to a halt behind the group. He could hear a familiar voice talking.

"Yeah and then my father came flying into the room inside a huge tornado and completely decked the entire squad."

Sonic knew the story of the Phantom escape well and Jet was a good teller of the story. He waited a moment longer before calling.

"Jet! Yo Jet come on down for a sec will you."

The chatter stopped and Jet's face appeared over the side of the fighter's cockpit.

"Heya Sonic, be right down."

Jet drew himself up and then jumped out of the cockpit, landing lightly on the ground in front of Sonic. It was true what they said about cats always landing on their feet. Jet stood up and looked at Sonic.

"What's up Sonic?" he asked.

"Meeting in just under an hour Jet. Section Alpha 12 in the port hanger." replied Sonic.

"Woah! The restricted area? They're actually going to let us in there?"

"I have no idea Jet. Silvia just told me to get everyone to meet up there."

"Way cool! I was going to help these guys this afternoon but then a meeting is a meeting. You know I've watched some of the guys coming out of that section and listened to them talking about the stuff they do in there."

"Jet that's called spying."

"No it's called over hearing. I can't help it if I have good hearing."

Sonic shook his head and sighed.

"Just don't let anyone catch you doing that ok."

"Well if they're inviting us in today it won't matter will it."

Jet gave a huge grin and then looked back at the crowd.

"Well thanks for letting me know Sonic but now I got a story to continue."

"Hehe! Alright then." chuckled Sonic, "Remember just under an hour ok."

"Gotcha, later."

With that Jet jumped back into the fighter and continued his tale as Sonic walked off across the bay. He didn't know what to do now so he decided to just sit and watch the activities going on in the hanger. He sat down on a box and started to doze lightly as he waited.

-----------------------------------------

An hour later the group was assembled in the open area next to the large doors to section Alpha 12. The doors were huge, standing a good ten meters tall, and were covered in warnings and messages saying "Restricted" and "Do not enter". They were just awaiting Silvia's arrival now so they could enter. Everyone was quiet, occasionally glancing back at the doors, as they waited, this was going to be interesting. As the hour arrived so did Silvia flanked my Captain Thompson.

"Glad you all made it on time, I hate waiting." she said.

"So do we, what all this about?" asked Sally.

"You'll see, captain."

"Yes ma'am."

The captain stepped forwards, taking out a key card as he did. He ran it down a small lock on the side of the huge shutter and stepped back.

"Welcome to section A12." said Silvia with a grin.

A split moment later a warning klaxon went off accompanied by several flashing orange lights as the huge doors slid apart down the middle. They stopped with a heavy metallic clunk and Silvia motioned inside. The group slowly stepped inside followed by Silvia and the captain. They hadn't gone more than a few meters inside when there was a giant metal clang from behind. The entire group jumped and spun to see the large metal doors has closed again.

"Pretty jumpy I see." commented Silvia.

"Well this is all new to us." replied Sonic.

"You've got nothing to fear you know."

"Yes well…"

"Now come on, I've got something to show you all."

Silvia now took up the lead, walking ahead of the group with the captain behind the group. They went a little further down the long metal corridor. Along the side of the corridor were chambers, separated from the corridor with thick clear material making it easy to look inside. Various pieces of tech lay scattered across most of these chambers.

"What is all this stuff?" asked Jet almost to himself as he walked along.

"Past research programs we'd been working on." replied Silvia.

Jet jumped, he hadn't expected a reply, but soon settled and became curious again.

"Like what?" he asked.

"Well there," replied Silvia pointing at one of the chambers, "there we have a fighter with a new type of slipstream star drive. Problem was it created too much gamma radiation, killed the test pilot."

"Oh…"

"No worries Jet, oh yes, that one there is a new type of fighter particle cannon we invented."

She pointed to a long cylindrical cannon with tattered remains or something hanging off it.

"What that debris?" asked Sally.

"The fighter we attached the cannon too. The recoil was so intense it vaporised the fighter, luckily it was just a test drone."

Silvia led them on down the corridor pointing out a few other failed projects as they continued. She seemed to be enjoying telling them about there failures for some reason. Finally they arrived at another large set of doors. On the front of the door was a huge stencil saying "MCBS Control Centre". Again the captain stepped forwards, swiping his card down a lock. Silvia was now virtually drooling in anticipation causing the group to look at her in a very odd manner. As the door swung open Silvia stepped forwards and motioned for them to follow her in. They did and started to look around the room they were in. It was pretty large and had a lot of mechanical pullies and lifting gear suspended from the ceiling. To one side of the room was what looked like a command and control area. The room had large glass windows to it and was filled with monitors and displays which at the moment were all inactive. The rest of the room was filled with various pieces of machinery and people mulling from one place to another. One of these people slowly approached the group as the door behind them closed with a bang.

"Greetings Ma'am President." he said with a smile.

"Ah hello Simon, how are the projects doing?" greeted Silvia in response.

"As always miss Higara very well indeed."

"Good."

"You're here to see them yes?"

"Correct Simon, are you all ready?"

"We've been ready for an hour miss president, we're just going over the data again."

"Very good, fire them up then."

"Yes ma'am!"

Simon quickly turned, his lab coat flying out behind him slightly as he darted off towards the glass windowed room in the corner. Silvia turned to the group.

"Follow me please."

They did, not speaking a word as Silvia led them across the room to the far wall. When they reached it they found that the wall had a number of doors in it. Each door was a couple of meters tall and about the same wide, a total of six of them were spaced out across the wall. On each of the doors was a stencilled label reading "MCBS Angel 1", "MCBS Angel 2" etcetera along to the sixth door.

"Angel?" asked Sally.

"You'll see." replied Silvia with a grin, "Open them up."

With a series of metallic clunks the locks holding the doors shut opened and the doors slid back revealing their contents. The group blinked and gasped before Jet voiced their feelings.

"WOAH!"

Inside each of the doors was some sort of backpack, however it wasn't any ordinary backpack. It was constructed of metal and had a small set of twin tail fins coming out of the bottom of it which would reach a person's knees should they put it on. A second larger set of fins stuck out of the backpacks back, these dropping down to about ankle height. On the floor below each backpack, separate from it, was a large set of metal boot and standing upright on each side of the backpack, also not connected, were a set of metallic arms each with a different type of weapon on it. The group starred for a moment longer before Sonic spoke.

"What are those?!" he asked still looking at the units.

"Those are Mobile Combat Battle Suits, better known to us as Angel Suits for obvious reason." replied Silvia, "We've spent the last few years developing them."

"What…?" asked Jet.

"What are they?" finished Silvia, "I guess I can't expect you to know. Basically each of these six units is a mechanised suited that a pilot can use in combat. They have been designed to work in space, air and even sea so they are definitely multi purpose. We're still working on a few features like the sea mode but they are roughly finished and mission ready."

"Can…can I take a look?" asked Jet looking up.

"Of course, I want you all to take a look, go ahead." replied Silvia.

The others were a little hesitant but Jet raced forwards towards one of the suits. The one he picked was the one labelled number five. He started to look over it closely, being careful not to touch it though. The others soon joined him, looking at the suits next to the one Jet was looking at. Nothing was said for a few minutes before Jet turned around.

"These are so cool, wish I could have a go in one." he exclaimed.

"Why don't you?" asked Silvia.

"Huh?"

The entire group looked round at Silvia, puzzled expressions on each of their faces.

"What do you mean Silvia?" asked Sally.

"I meant what I meant. Why don't you have a go." she replied.

"You're kidding me!" said Jet completely gob smacked.

"Not at all."

"Ok what's the deal Silvia?" asked Sonic giving her a funny look.

"You said you wanted adventure Sonic. Listen, we've already tested these suits but none of our pilots could get to grip with them. They've spent too long in fighters and can't control them properly. We've had to straighten out more than a few dents and breaks over the last year. I know you aren't exactly experienced with our tech either but I've discussed it with the captain and he agrees we should let you have a shot."

"Correct." said Harry appearing from one side, "If we are going to let our own pilots destroy these things we might as well know if you can do any better first."

"Well put Harry." said Silvia giving him a fake round of applause.

"You can't be serious." said Sonic.

"Deadly serious Sonic. Why's it so hard to believe?" asked Silvia.

"Well it's just…just…I dunno." he replied.

"I think what Sonic is trying to say is it's a little unreal. We never expected this." said Chalk.

"I can understand that but I'm not lying. We want you to try out these units for yourself and see if you can handle them any better than our pilots."

"Even me?" asked Alicia looking from the suit labelled number four to Silvia and back again.

"Yes even you my dear."

"This is SO cool!" cried Jet still gawking at unit five.

"I thought you'd say something like that Jet. Now I have a few preferences I'd like to inform you of first." said Silvia.

"Preferences?" asked Sonic.

"As in who tries each suit. Firstly you Sonic, I think you'd be best with unit one."

"Why?" he asked.

"It suits you, excuse the pun. But anyway it does. That unit is armed with 2 large energy beam rifles. They would no doubt go well with your up front attitude."

"Up front attitude…"

"Quiet Sonic." said Sally, "Anything else Silvia?"

"Yes, you Sally might be better of with unit two. We've equipped it with a few support functions like for example and EMP generator. After hearing of your experience with such things it would make sense."

"Yes that true….hey maybe there would be a way to connect Nicole to it? That way she could control the support functions." said Sally.

"Hmm…interesting idea. I'll have to have Simon look into that…if you don't mind working with him."

"Not at all."

"Great, I'll inform him later. Now Chalk I think you'll like this."

"Oh? Why?"

"Come and take a look at this."

Silvia walked over to the third unit and tapped her finger lightly on the right arm weapon. Chalk raised an eyebrow.

"What's that?" she asked.

"This is a neutron accelerator particle cannon. After noticing your experience with heavy weaponry…"

"You mean Catrina?"

"Yes that…after noticing your experience with such things I thought this was best for you. This gun carries the firepower of around ten beam rifles in a single shot."

"WHAT?!" cried Sonic spinning round, "That's insane."

"Yes maybe but effective against larger targets. What you say Chalk?"

"I dunno, I've grown quite attached to Catrina. I don't really want to abandon her."

"You wouldn't be. I'm sure we could modify your weapon so it would be compatible with the suit. It could even serve as a third weapon for you."

"Well I guess so." said Chalk with a shrug.

"Good. Now the children, I must be frank. I never expected your group to include children but that's the position we're in."

"I'm not a child!" said Alicia folding her arms and putting on a firm face, "I prefer young adult right now."

"Very well, sorry Alicia. But as I was saying, our situation. We designed these suits for people slightly larger than you two so you might have a few operating problems but you're still welcome to try if you desire."

"Oh yeah!" replied Jet.

"In that case your units. After observing Alicia's little antics in the cargo bay I've decided to give you unit four to try. It's been designed for close combat and to aid this we've installed a few extra engines to make it more manoeuvrable. With your agility I though you'd like it best, you alright with close combat?"

"No disrespect miss president but would I do martial arts if I wasn't ok with close combat?" replied Alicia.

Silvia gave an understanding nod and moved on to Jet. The cat was literally climbing all over the fifth unit.

"I see you like that one Jet." she said.

"Yup, really nice." he replied.

"I was at a bit of a loss at decided whether to give you unit five or unit six but it seems you've decided that for me. That one is a long range unit. A beam sniper and long range missile launcher."

"Nice."

The cat didn't even appear to be listening as he continued to examine the unit extensively. Silvia turned back to the group and saw Sonic looking past her at the sixth unit.

"Who gets that one?" he asked.

"At the moment no-one." she replied.

"What about Andrew?" asked Sally curiously.

"Well we did ask for six people with this in mind so the sixth unit would have been for the sixth member of your group but we still don't trust Andrew fully."

"Oh come on this is getting tedious. The guy has probably died of boredom in his room by now." said Sonic throwing up his arms.

"We'll continue to watch him and if things change we'll include him ok."

Sonic sighed and nodded.

"Very well."

"So when do we start?" asked Jet looking up from his unit.

"Right now if you like. You can at least try on the suit and get the feel of it." replied Silvia.

"Sweet!" replied Jet, his tail flicking around behind him.

"Everyone else alright with that?" asked Silvia.

Alicia and Sally gave a nod and Sonic soon nodded too. Chalk however was looking at her suit with a little caution. She aimlessly rubbed her arm as she felt an odd warm spot building on it and then dying away.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" she murmured to herself.

She turned and finally nodded giving her approval. Silvia turned away and gave a few orders and a group of people clustered forwards to help them. They first went to unit one and Sonic stepped forward.

"How'd this work anyway? I don't see any straps or anything to hold this thing on." he said.

"Straps? That's so primitive, these things use a magnetic gravity field to hold themselves on. It feels like you're wearing nothing." said one of the guys beside him.

"That so? Ok then tell me what to do." replied Sonic.

"Turn round and back up towards us."

Sonic did and stopped when he was told. He felt an odd tingling sensation run over his back and then a feeling of something brushing against his back. He involuntary stretched his shoulders back only to find that they banged against something on his back. Looking over his shoulder he found the unit already attached to his back and gawked.

"Woah!" he said giving his body a little shake and watching as the unit clung to him.

He slowly stepped forwards and turned towards the others. Sally couldn't help but chuckle, the winged pack on his back really did make him look like an angel.

"All you need now is a halo Sonic." she chuckled.

"That can be arranged." said Silvia stepping forwards again holding a small black ball.

"What?" asked Sonic, "You're not going to give me a golden ring are you? Hey we could use a power ring Sally."

Sonic started chuckling himself before looking back at Silvia and stopping.

"No nothing like that." replied Silvia, "This."

She held up the black ball and pressed her hand lightly on the top of it. The ball gave a small beep and then a couple of small lights blinked on it. Seconds later it had shot from her hand and was buzzing round Sonic's head before it finally settled over his right shoulder.

"What's that?" asked Sonic looking at the ball.

"That's your targeting system. That little ball is filled with sensors and detection equipment. It gathers data and sends the information to a display on this headband."

Silvia lifted a small metallic headband into view. On it was mounted a small glass scope on an extending boom.

"Put this on and watch what happens." she said handing Sonic the band.

Sonic looked at it for a second and then slipped it on. A moment later the screen folded down over his left eye and blinked into life. Strings of data started to flash across is but Sonic was only able to catch odd words like "formatting", "synchronising" and "uploading". A moment later the data stopped and a more user friendly display came into view. As Sonic panned his head the screen outlined various items and people in the room, surrounding them in a green glow and labelling then with a little tag saying "Threat: 0%".

"Now watch this Sonic." said Silvia drawing a small gun from her side and cocking it.

Almost instantly the screen flashed red in Sonic's face and Silvia was outlines with a red line and a new label appeared saying "Threat: 80%". The next thing Silvia did was to point the loaded weapon directly at Sonic causing the label to change to "Threat: 100% WARNING!". Before any of the group around her could react, Silvia dropped the gun and holstered it. On Sonic's display the line around her went orange and a new label saying "Threat: 50%" came into view. Sonic was just stunned by the whole thing.

"That was….I mean….woah!" he said at length.

"I see the threat system is working as well as ever." said Silvia, "Pay close attention to that display, it's invaluable. Ok next thing Sonic is the boots."

"Boots?"

"Yes boots, turn around."

Sonic did and saw the people around him holding two very large metallic boots.

"What I do? Just slip 'em on?" asked Sonic.

"Yes." replied Silvia.

Sonic shrugged and did so. As he did the guys holding them clamped a metal strap round his feet securing the boots to his shoes. He moved them round slightly, oddly enough they didn't feel that heavy.

"I wouldn't be able to run in these." he said slightly gloomily.

"You don't have to. Both the boots and wing fins behind you have jet engines installed in them. We can't activate them in here you understand."

"Interesting, anything else?"

"Apart from the arm weaponry no, you want to try that on too?"

"Might as well make it complete." replied Sonic.

Silvia nodded and motioned to the technicians to do it. They soon came forwards holding two arm like booms. They fixed one to either side of the backpack and then brought them round in front of Sonic. The arms had a large grip mounted on it and around each grip was constructed the beam rifles Silvia had mentioned. Sonic slowly took hold of the grips and raised the arms into the air. He expected them to be heavy but they weren't really. He took a few steps around, moving the arms as he did, getting the feel for it.

"Everything ok?" asked Silvia.

"Feels weird." replied Sonic still moving around slowly.

Silvia gave a nod and a slight chuckle and then looked at the other.

"Care to try it next Sally?" she asked.

"I guess so." she replied.

Sally soon found herself with the pack on her back and the boots and arms attached as well. Silvia then released the orb and gave Sally her headband. She explained that it was better to do it this way as the system fully calibrated when it switched on and had only released the orb early for Sonic because of the halo observation. Before long Sally stood next to Sonic wearing her suit. Her weapons were slightly different to Sonic being that of a shield on her left arm and a beam rifle on her right. At present both arms were lying at her side as Sally had Nicole out on scan mode examining the entire suit. Next came Chalk and she wasn't too thrilled. Even as they were putting the backpack on she was complaining.

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea, you know." she mumbled to herself slowly.

Even through all her mumbling she didn't really try to stop them but it was evident on her face that she was uncomfortable. Finally she stood there wearing the backpack, boots and arms. Sonic had been watching her the whole time and was slightly concerned, Chalk was definitely nervous. Silvia released a third orb and it proceeded to hover over Chalk's head forcing the rabbit to look up nervously at it. Silvia then held out a headband towards Chalk and this time the rabbit took a step backwards, her boots making loud metallic thunks as they hit the deck.

"Um I've been thinking you know." she said as she stopped backing up, "What if I tried it out without that for now? I've handled Catrina for years and I know how to aim a weapon."

"Yes but you're not familiar with the suit itself. This will take away the need to aim for the most part and let you concentrate on the suits operation." replied Silvia shaking the headband around slightly.

"Yes but ah…"

"Hey Chalk what's up?" whispered Sonic.

Chalk looked to her side to see that Sonic had made his way slowly over to her and had just whispered in her ear. She looked over at him looking down slightly as she did, her expression made her look like she originally had when T2 had saved her in the mountains.

"Sonic I…I can't. It's….it's too similar…" she murmured.

"Chalk I know you don't like this but trust me its ok. This headband isn't the high of fashion but it works and there's no control device or anything in it."

Sonic knew why Chalk was apprehensive. The headband reminded her too much of the one Robotnik had used on her. She was afraid.

"Sonic I…ca…"

Chalk looked away, almost looking like she was about to cry. Sonic swiftly put an arm round her shoulder and pulled her closer, whispering to her as she did.

"Chalk trust me ok, myself and Sally are fine yes. These guys are on our side, they've done nothing to make me think there after us. Just give it a try Chalk. If you don't like it then I won't make you wear it."

"But you can't decide that…"

"Yeah right I can't decide that! Chalk if you try this and decide you don't like it I'll force the issue. Silvia can't make you wear it if you don't like it but at least give it a shot."

Chalk looked back up and Sonic and sniffed, giving him a small nod as she did.

"Ok Sonic. I guess I can't run from this forever, I gotta face it sooner or later."

"That's my Chalk, come on now buck up."

Chalk nodded and looked up, wiping her face slightly as she did. Sonic stepped back and nodded at Silvia who held out the headband once more. Chalk looked at it and spoke.

"Can…can you put it on for me?" she asked.

Silvia just gave a nod and a smile and stepped forwards. She undid the strap and fed it round Chalk's head. Chalk jumped as she felt the metal touch her head and then calmed. Silvia fastened the strap and stepped back. Moments later the screen descended over Chalk's left eye and started to flash, setting itself up and calibrating the different suit systems. Chalk kept her eyes closed for this part, wearing it was bad enough but looking at the flashing screen was something she completely refused to do. Finally she opened her eyes and looked around, it was done.

"There not so bad after all." said Silvia.

"I guess not Sil…."

Chalk stopped in mid sentence and closed her eyes lightly giving a faint moan as she did. She raised a hand to her head and ran it along the headband as if she had just developed a headache. A faint electrical charge ran across her hand as she rubbed her head.

"Chalk? Chalk you ok?" asked Sally cautiously.

Chalk didn't reply, instead she just moaned again and swayed slightly on her feet.

"Chalk?" asked Sonic joining Sally in her concern.

Chalk still didn't respond. The electrical charge running over her hand started to increase. It was now easily visible and as they continued to watch Chalk's headband began to glow a slight red colour. At length Chalk gave another moan and this time they could tell she was in discomfort. She moaned again and inhaled sharply. Seconds later the electrical charge running over her hand crackled and spread, flashing over her whole body causing her fur to stick up on end. Chalk's entire body went rigid and she screamed as if she had been jabbed with a hot poker. She bent double, causing her suit's wings to stick up into the air, and clutched her head as she continued to scream. Sally quickly rushed as quickly as she could to the rabbit's side and reached out for her. As her hand made contact with Chalk there was a giant electrical bang and Sally found herself flying backwards into a piece of machinery. She would have been knocked unconscious had it not been for the Angel suit behind her taking most of the impact. Even so she slumped to the floor before looked up, a look of panic on her face.

"Chalk!" she cried struggling to get back up again.

"Shut it off, shut it off!" cried Sonic spinning to Silvia, his own wings sending some loose items flying across the bay as he turned.

"We can't!" replied Silvia equally panicked, "It's internally powered and controlled. The only way to shut it off is to get to her."

They all looked back at Chalk who was still standing rigid although her scream had quietened now. Suddenly it reached a pitch again and, with several splatters of blood, a number of green tubes burst out of Chalk's skin before swinging round and clamping themselves onto the backpack. A number of small electrical wires also pushed their way out of her skin and fixed to various pieces of the suit, most of them around the headband. The static charge across her body was fading now and as it did Chalk started to relax. Finally the static stopped and for a moment Chalk stood motionless before giving a slight moan and collapsing to the floor with a crash. Sonic and Sally couldn't move that well in their suits so both Alicia and Jet raced forwards to kneel down beside her. Alicia gave her a nudge.

"Chalk? Chalk wake up."

Chalk gave no response and Alicia looked up looking worried. Silvia acted quickly.

"Get her out of that suit, now!" she screamed.

A number of technicians raced forwards and started to remove the suit from around Chalk. However they soon found they couldn't. The boots came off easily enough but the backpack and headband was stuck and wouldn't move an inch.

"She needs help!" cried Alicia now getting frantic.

"Get her down to medical stat!" responded Silvia.

"But what about the suit? It can't leave the bay." argued one of the technicians.

"Either you remove that suit now which you can't or you take it with her! I don't care about protocol or secrets right now. Get her to medical!" screamed Silvia.

"Yes ma'am!"

-----------------------------------------

"Chalk, hey Chalk wake up. Come on now, wake up." urged Sonic nudging the rabbit.

Chalk made a small moan and her eyes fluttered slightly.

"That's it Chalk, come on now."

Chalk gave another low moan and slowly her eyes opened. She stared back at Sonic's face beside her.

"Hi Chalk, how you feeling?" asked Sonic.

"It…it hurts…" moaned the rabbit quietly.

"What does?"

"E…everything…"

Sonic looked at her apologetically and sighed.

"Sonic?" whimpered Chalk softly, "What…what happened? My body feels strange. Not normal."

"Hush Chalk. They'll be time for talk later, you just rest now ok." replied Sonic gripping her shoulder slightly.

Chalk didn't even try to resist. She looked away slightly and fell back to sleep. Sonic sat back in his chair and looked at the rabbit. The Angel suit was still attached to her and the tubes and wires that had appeared from her skin were still attached to the suit. Was this his fault? He had pushed Chalk into it after all. Was he to blame? He gave another sigh as he continued to watch over her.

Above the medical bay ran a long corridor with large glass windows looking down at an angle. It was here that Silvia stood watching Sonic and Chalk. She gave a firm sigh and turned to face the person behind her.

"Ok let's hear it." she said.

The person, obviously a scientist from his clothing, took out a small electronic pad and looked over it for a moment before speaking.

"Well Miss President it seems that she has…merged with the suit." he said.

"Merged? How'd you mean merged?"

"Well we did a few tests down in the lab while she was unconscious. The area of her skin around the suit has split and attached itself to the metal plating. The wounds have completely healed too. It's like someone welded the suit to her skin."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know but I think it has something to do with the technology already in her body."

"Go on."

"Well from what she told us of it, it was implanted inside her by a person called Robotnik. He used this implanted technology to then control her through suggestion turning her into some sort of android servant."

"Yes I already know that…but what does it have to do with this?"

"If I can speak frankly, she doesn't know the extent of this technology and I think if she did she'd be acting very differently."

"How'd you mean?"

"She assumed the only implants were in her hands and head. Her hands so she could use that weapon of her and her head for control purposes but I'm afraid to say it extends much more than that. Roughly sixty five percent of her skin is full of micro circuits and we've detected a few large components throughout her body. Namely metallic additions to her arms which would explain why she is able to throw that weapon of hers around as if it is nothing."

"Why didn't you find any of this out earlier? She was scanned before yes!"

"With all respect miss president she was a little more active then. When we went near her with any heavy scanning gear she freaked and ended up destroying half the lab in her panic."

Silvia turned away in a fluster and looked back down at Chalk and Sonic.

"So what you're saying is that we can't remove the suit." she said.

"Yes. Even if we could undo the skin from around the metal plating she's have huge areas of bare flesh which could easily go septic. Couple this with the fact that this happened during the calibration stage of the process. I think our own technology awakened the circuitry in her body and caused it to react. We don't know what affect it would have on her to remove it."

"Great, just great."

"I'm sorry Miss President."

"That's alright, I just never expected this. I wonder what will happen when she wakes up."

-----------------------------------------

It was a few days later when Chalk finally woke properly. She had been slipping in and out of consciousness but finally looked like she was going to come round. As always she lay on her front, the Angel suit sticking into the air behind her. Everyone had gathered around her bed, Sonic and Sally stood at one side with Silvia on the other side and Jet and Alicia watched from the foot of the bed. The captain was standing a little way off watching from the doorway of the medical bay. No-one was going to push Chalk and so far they had been waiting around thirty minutes for her to come too. The rabbit's eyes were opening slightly and then closing again in fairly quick succession as she came round. Small moans escaped her lips with her breathing coming in long gentle sighs. At length her eyes finally opened and she glances around slightly as much as she could with her face buried in the pillow.

"Huh?" she murmured.

"Chalk." cooed Sally as she slowly knelt down next to the rabbit.

Sally reached forwards and took a gentle grip of Chalk's shoulder.

"You ok?" she asked.

"I dunno Sally." replied Chalk still slightly out of it, "I feel funny."

Sally looked back at Sonic for a moment and he nodded. The pair had earlier decided that Sally should tell Chalk the situation. They both knew that Sally was better in these situations.

"Chalk I have something to tell you." said Sally slowly looking back at Chalk.

"Sally?" asked Chalk slowly seeing the look on her face, "Sally what happened?"

"Chalk do you remember anything?"

"I…I remember putting the suit on and then…pain. Intense pain, like my skin was burning off. And then…..then flashes. How long have I been out?"

"A few days Chalk."

"A few days…what happened? Why do I feel strange Sally?"

"Chalk this is going to be difficult for you to accept but…look at your arm."

As Chalk moved her head to look Sally shut her eyes. She couldn't bear looking into her face as she saw what had happened to her. With her eyes closed she still heard Chalk's reaction. The rabbit gave a shrill gasp and her breathing started to come in sharp pants. The equipment attached to her to monitor started to bleep frantically, her heart beat jumping drastically. Chalk slowly reached behind her as best she could and felt the large backpack and set of wings on her back. Her hand slowly dropped back to her side and her face went completely white.

"What…..what happened…?" she said her face shaking."

"I'm sorry Chalk." said Silvia from her other side, "We didn't know how extensive the technology inside you was…it reacted with our tech and…"

Silvia fell silent and Chalk turned her head to look at her.

"What…what do you mean?" she asked.

"While you were unconscious we did a few scans Chalk. The technology in your body extends further than the implants on your hands. Nearly two thirds of your skin and both your arms are full of circuits and metallic parts." replied Silvia looking away.

"No….he said he wouldn't…." stuttered Chalk, "He said he wouldn't robotize me…he said he wouldn't!"

Chalk was now obviously panicked and scarred to death. Her entire body was shaking and her face was blank and white. She looked back at Sonic and Sally, as if they'd suddenly come up with some brilliant idea to make everything better again. Instead the pair of them were looking at the ground with downcast expressions.

"No…..please no…" murmured Chalk.

Sally slowly looked up, the sadness evident on her face.

"I'm sorry Chalk." she said slowly.

"No…"

Chalk turned and buried her face in the pillow before bursting into tears. Her sobbing was loud even through the pillows and continued for quite some time before, exhausted from crying and the event she had just been through, she finally fell asleep. Most of the group walked away but Alicia and Jet stayed at Chalk's side.

"We'll stay with her mother." said Alicia slowly.

Sally gave a small nod and smiled slightly.

"Thank you Alicia." replied Sally.

"No problem mother."

Jet and Alicia slowly sat down on opposite sides of Chalk as the others moved off. They spent a moment looking at her and then looked at each other.

"You think she'll be ok?" asked Alicia.

"I hope so." said Jet, "I hope so."

-----------------------------------------

The days slowly dragged on. For now work on the Angel Suits was postponed until the recent events had passed. Everyone went back to their normal jobs but their heart just wasn't in it. Sonic just couldn't bring himself to make any decisions and Sally found herself getting irritated by Nicole's read outs. Alicia had stopped swinging around the hanger and now walked from place to place delivering messages and equipment. Jet had stopped telling stories now and constantly had a defeated look on his face as he went about helping to fix various things. Chalk had been checked out of the medical bay and had spent most of her time in her room crying. Occasionally one of the group had found her sitting in a dark corner of a hanger or room sniffing and murmuring about home.

Eventually two weeks had passed by since their arrival and things were still moving along the same beat until Silvia received a shocking piece of news. She was sitting in her office with her head in her hands when a soldier burst through the door gasping heavily. Silvia was instantly on her feet and staring at him.

"What's going on?" she snapped annoyed at the disturbance.

"Miss President! Our latest intelligence report from Jupiter just came in. We have trouble." replied the soldier holding out a computer printout.

Silvia quickly grabbed it and then stared in disbelief at the paper.

"Are you sure this is accurate?" she spluttered.

"Yes ma'am. We checked it three times."

"My god! Call those furries together in the main meeting hall. I want the captain there too."

"Yes ma'am!"

The soldier quickly left at a sprint leaving Silvia too look over the print out once more. She looked away, dropping the printout onto her desk.

"This isn't good at all."

-----------------------------------------

Not long after a group consisting of Sonic, Sally, Alicia, Jet, Silvia and the captain sat around a large meeting table. A stack of papers sat next to Silvia as she started the meeting.

"I know now is not a good time for any of us but trouble never seems to occur when it's convenient." she said, "I've just received a very disturbing report from our operative on Jupiter."

"What's Jupiter?" asked Alicia.

"A planet…gas giant and the biggest planet in the Earth system." replied Jet.

"Correct Jet, it's also the Alliances main ship building facility." said Silvia handing out a set of photos to everyone, "Does anyone recognise that ship."

"Like hell yeah!" said Jet.

"That's the Phantom." finished Alicia staring at the photo, "But you blew that ship up right."

"Yes we did. Now take a look at this photo and compare them."

Silvia then handed out a second set of photos to everyone. They all blinked as they looked between the photos and then looked up at Silvia.

"Those are….the same!" said Sonic.

"Nearly. What the second photo shows is a ship currently being constructed in the main Jupiter ship port. Its name is the Phantom 2, a MKII Dauntless class cruiser."

"MKII? That doesn't sound good." said Sally.

"Its not." replied Silvia.

"Hang on!" said Sonic sharply, "You keep going on about how you have the best covert operation of anyone so why didn't you find out about this earlier?"

"We've been tracking things coming in and out of the Jupiter station for months now. They were never big and we though they were going to be used for repairs or construction of smaller ships. Our operative didn't notice until recently that they were constructing a second Phantom."

"Great, just great?! So what are we going to do about it?" asked Sonic.

"According to our sources it won't be completed for another few months so our best bet is a pre-emptive strike." said the captain, "Miss President I request permission to send a squadron to Jupiter and destroy this thing."

"You know very well captain that our fighters are not capable of destroying something that big. Nothing is apart from that Ion Beam Frigate we had." replied Silvia.

"Yes I know that Miss President but its not yet complete and if we strike now while it is unprotected we might have a chance. All it takes is one volley at the main power core and we could probably take it our and the Jupiter station too."

"That's unacceptable captain and you know it. I will not endanger civilian lives and if I remember correctly Jupiter station has families onboard. If we are going to do this is it is just the Phantom and the dock, not the station!"

"I understand but I still request permission to start an operation."

"It's worth a shot I guess, start your preparations captain."

"Yes ma'am!"

The captain gave a sharp salute and left the room. Everyone watched him leave and then Sonic spoke.

"What's Jupiter Station?" he asked.

"Jupiter Station is a prototype ring colony. It's not even complete yet but when it is the ring will encircle the entire planet and be the home of a good few million colonists. At the moment just the construction crew and their families are living there, even so it's a good three hundred and fifty thousand people. About half the ring is complete now and they've been constructing it for over half a decade. Attached to the middle of this half ring is a large port and construction bay run by the military. Part of the port is used for civilian traffic and supply ships but most is used for military vessels. The Phantom 2 is being constructed in this port."

"So if the captain's squad can get in they'll have to destroy the Phantom but leave the ring intact." said Sally.

"Correct but it's harder than that. The area around the port is heavily guarded and even if no other ships are present the ring colony is armed with multiple beam cannon turrets and missile pods. If used all at once the half ring could probably take out this ship in a single volley."

Sonic and Sally looked at each other cautiously.

"Ouch." said Sonic.

"Quite Sonic, what happens if they fail?"

"Then we'll have trouble. The Alliance still isn't that aware of our existence. As far as we know they still haven't worked out I'm still alive and although they know it was humans that took out the Phantom they don't know who they were. If this goes badly they might find out who we are and that could be disastrous."

"We better hope they don't fail then." said Jet slowly.

"Yes." replied Silvia with a nod.


	4. Angel Launch!

Chapter 4 - Angel Launch!

Chalk sat curl in a ball in a corner of the second hanger. It was quiet here, the hanger was mainly used for storage and hardly anyone entered. She sat on top of a large cargo box, the wings of her Angel Suit sticking down almost to the ground behind her. Her chin was resting on her knees which were tucked up close to her chest. Her arms were still attacked to the Suit's arms and therefore were stretched out in front of her. Her eyes stung from the crying she had been doing over the last few days, the pain never seemed to stop. She looked up slightly and sniffed. The wounds caused by the exploding pipes and wires all over her body were healed now, it was incredible they had healed so fast, but they still stung when she moved especially the ones on her head.

Chalk pressed her eyes together, forcing the tears from her eyes, and kept them closed. Why had this happened? Suddenly a flash went past her mind. A vision of a grey face, a face she thought she should know but couldn't pin point. Her eyes flew open and she gasped a few times quickly before pulling a puzzled face. Ever since she had fully woken up she had been getting these flashes. At first they had been vague, an image of an area from high up on a mountain, a house in a village somewhere, a vegetable patch, a pale blue room inside a house. She had puzzled about these pictures slightly over the last few days. What were they all about? Who did this face belong too? She tried to recall it again but found she couldn't. It had been grey and...that was all she could remember. She looked up at the ceiling.

"Why did any of this have to happen to me? Why? What did I do wrong? Was I a bad child? Is this some sort of punishment? WHY?!"

She looked back down and started to cry again. Why couldn't she figure it out? Why was she cursed with no memories of this person? Why was she cursed with no memories at all?

"Mother…father…why can't I remember you?"

Suddenly another flash filled her mind, it was so intense it completely took over, filling her mind and vision to the extreme…

-----------------------------------------

"Ok now Chalk, blow them out."

"Mom don't patronise me, I'm eighteen today."

"You'll still be my little girl Chalk."

"Little? I'm bigger than you!"

"Quite true honey, now come on blow them out."

"Fine."

Chalk leaned forwards and exhaled sharply blowing out the candles on top of her cake. The rabbit next to her smiled and chuckled.

"It gets harder for you to do that every year."

"I'm not a little girl any more mom. I find these things….well….embarrassing."

"You embarrassed? I'll have to write this one down in my diary."

"I'll have to remember to bury that later."

"I'll have to remember to hide it then."

Chalk looked over at the other rabbit. She had two tone silvery grey fur covering most of her face with white rings around her eyes. Her long ears fell down her back and reach nearly to her waist. The bottom half of her ears were a jet black colour as was the bottom half of her arms and hands. She wore a fairly loose turquoise blue knitted jumper and a pair of white cotton trousers. She really did look her age of fifty seven. Chalk had to remind herself that she was the youngest of all her siblings and would soon be leaving home herself. Although her mother teased her on occasions she felt very attached to her, she didn't really want to leave at all.

"I remember when it was the others eighteenth birthday. You kicked up such a fuss, but then you were an adorable little fur ball back then." continued her mother.

"Oh mom! Don't!" complained Chalk blushing slightly.

"You're so cute when you blush you know. I can see you making someone very happy one day Chalk. Great things are afoot in this world and I'm sensing you'll be part of them…just don't forget to visit once in a while."

"Mom if it was left to me you know I'd never leave."

"I know dear but you can't stay here all your life."

"I know."

The pair looked at each other for a moment and then quickly embraced.

"I wish your father was here to see this." sighed her mother.

"Me too mom, me…."

A dull boom shook the air followed by a massive flash of light and an explosion. Chalk found herself hurtling through the air and crashing into a wall. She looked up only to look back down in pain as she soon found her right arm was broken. Their house was a ruin, completely blown apart by whatever had caused the explosion. Looking up again, Chalk could see that the entire village was in ruins also. Fires rages all over and a thick black smoke filled the air.

"Mother? Mother where are you?" called Chalk pulling herself to her knees.

The young rabbit looked all over the pile of rubble that was their home before finally seeing a grey figure lying on her front a little way away. Picking herself up as best she could Chalk moved towards her, finally collapsing next to her and turning her over.

"Mother? Mother say something." stammered Chalk on the verge of tears.

"Ah…Chalk…" murmured her mother.

"Mother!"

Chalk leaned forwards to hug her mother and she in turn reached up to hug her daughter.

"I'm sorry Chalk…" she moaned.

"Huh? Sorry for what Mother?"

"For…for having to leave you…"

"Huh? Mother what are you saying?"

Her mother didn't reply and instead coughed, coughing up a bit of blood as she did.

"It…it happens…to us all Chalk…eventually….one way or another."

"Mother no!"

"Be strong Chalk…make me proud…you've always been a fine daughter, even when you were a pest."

Chalk smiled slightly at the comment through her tears.

"Mother don't go, don't leave me."

"It's too late for that Chalk. Be strong and don't forget who you are. I…love you Chalk."

"Mother no! No mother don't!"

Chalk took a hold of her mother and shook her slightly trying to spur the life back into her. Slowly her mother's eyes closed and her breathing tapered to nothing. Chalk looked at her with wide eyes for a moment before collapsing into tears on top of her.

"No! I'll never let you go! Never! Never, never, never! Mother come back!"

"Well well well what do we have here?"

Chalk looked up sharply at the new voice. Above her hovered a small craft that looked like some sort of personal transport. An array of small weapons poked out of the front of it and through the window she could see a large round person dressed in red and black.

"Interesting that you survived my test. No matter, I'll use you for another type of test."

The figure began to chuckle evilly to himself. Chalk found herself unable to move as she stared up at the figure.

-----------------------------------------

"No…no…MOTHER!"

Chalk's scream was so loud it rattled the very bulkheads around her. She took a few quick pants and looked down, staring at the box underneath her with wide eyes. What was that?! Had that been a…memory? Chalk looked up slowly running the whole thing through her head. That grey face…her mother. She could remember! She could remember her mother! Chalk sat for a moment encased in pure bliss before the rest of the memory came into view. It had been him…it had been Robotnik! He had killed her! Robotnik had killed her mother. Her eyes, before filled with tear, now flashed with anger. She brought an arm up and wiped her eyes roughly before returning it to her side. She quickly grabbed the huge boots beside her and clipped them onto her feet before jumping from the box and walking from the hanger.

-----------------------------------------

"How much longer?" asked Sonic.

"They should be nearly there now." informed Silvia.

Sonic leaned forwards and examined the large 3D map in front of him. It was computer generated and showed a map of the Alpha Centauri system and the outer fringes of the Earth System. A dotted line was stretched out from where they were and was now nearing the planet labelled Jupiter. It was about a week after the discovery of the Phantom 2 and the captains plans were already in progress. It hadn't taken the captain long to work a plan out but even so Silvia had insisted on going over it numerous times and then waiting for the most recent covert reports to come through before she allowed it to go ahead. The fighters had been dispatched earlier that morning and would now be nearing their target.

"Switch to tactical view." said Harry as he looked away from the display.

The map changed, now showing a large scale plan of the planet Jupiter and the massive structure around it. The port was clearly visible sticking out of the middle of the ring. The data for this picture was coming in from the fighter's scanners as they approached the target.

"How long?" asked Sonic again.

"Be patient Sonic." hissed Sally from his side.

Sonic glanced over and Sally next to him and gave a small nod. Jet and Alicia were standing next to Sally watching the display closely. Everyone was waiting with baited breath for the next event. It was only a few moments before it happened.

"This is Arc Fire squadron to home nest. Requesting final conformation codes." came a message over the radio.

Harry picked up the comm and spoke.

"Confirmed Arc Fire. Final conformation code 447369, good luck and good hunting."

"Roger that! Cutting star drive in 3…2…1…"

On the map a total of seven flashes lit up on one side of the screen followed by a number of white trails that signified the arrival of the fleet. Six fighters and one support frigate had been sent, everyone hoped it was enough.

"Arc Fire 1 to squadron, you all know the plan. Lock engines in attack positions and pile in!" came a message.

"Roger." came a collective response.

Everyone watched the display as six of the dots accelerated and split up heading in different directions. The seventh turned sharply and came to a stop. The other six dots started to move in towards the ring and the port before a number of yellow targets appeared on the ring.

"What are those?" asked Jet quickly.

"SHIT! The ring has activated its outer defences!" said Harry sharply, "Home nest to Arc Fire the ring has just…"

He was cut off in mid sentence by a scream and an order.

"WOAH! Arc Fire take evasive action! Repeat, break off and take evasive action!"

"There's too many!"

"I'm tracking an energy spike!"

"Break off! That's an order!"

"Incoming fire!"

The radio was a mass of jumbled orders and cries as was the map. Lines were flying all over signifying the various energy shots and missiles the Ring was firing.

"This is Arc 4, I'm in range! Locked onto the main power generator! I'm going in!"

"Confirmed Arc 4, everyone give Arc 4 covering fire!"

On the map one of the dots broke off and headed straight towards the Phantom. It started to weave back and forth as volleys of shots flew past it.

"Come on, come on!" urged Harry as he watched.

The dot flew straight past the Phantom and then curved in behind it.

"Target locked! Rockets away!"

A stream of white lines flew from the dot and headed straight for the Phantom. Everyone held their breath as the dots got closer and closer and….poof. They stopped in mid air.

"What?!" cried Harry.

"This is Arc 4! Phantom is online! I repeat the Phantom's defensive systems are online!"

"Arc 4 break off!"

"YAAAAARH!"

The dot signifying Arc 4 suddenly fragmented as a series of energy cannon shots tore through it.

"Damn!" cursed Harry, "We've got no chance against that defensive screen!"

"Order them back!" cried Silvia, "Quickly!"

Harry gave a sharp nod and relayed the order.

"Home base to Arc Fire, break off attack. I repeat break off!"

Harry looked back at the screen to see a further 3 dots fragment to nothing.

"Dammit! Respond! Arc Fire respond! Break off! Home base to Arc Angel, break off!"

"This is frigate Arc Angel to home base. We've lost contact with all of Arc Fire squadron. Initiating star drive." came a response.

The dot representing the frigate slowly started to turn away from the battle.

"Holy smoke! What's that?!" cried Jet frantically pointing to the map.

A giant round circle had appeared and a ship was emerging from it.

"Oh god!" said Harry slowly.

"Arc Angel to home base! We've just had a multi beam frigate jump in. Star Drive in 3…2…"

Several large beams sprung from the new arrival heading straight for the fleeing frigate. The beams struck the side of the ship but as it was a map no indication as to the damage was known.

"Hit's from C deck to flight deck! Hull integrity failed on seven levels!" came a panicked cry over the comm.

"Cancel Star Drive!"

"It's too late!"

On the map the frigate became a streak of white only to vanish in a massive burst of fragments. The map gave a fizzle and then went dead, with nothing to feed it pictures it could no longer operate. Everyone in the room was completely stunned.

"How could this happen?" said Harry slowly, "How could we get it this wrong?"

"This is terrible." said Silvia slowly.

"What do we do now?" asked Sonic slowly.

Harry and Silvia both looked at him.

"Nothing we can do. Arc Fire was the best fighter squadron we had and….there's no way we can stop them now." said Harry almost sounding completely crushed.

Silvia looked down.

"There's no way we can stop it. We don't have anything that could get through a defence like that." she said slowly.

"But…" said Jet quietly before stopping.

The entire room was silent apart from beeping of a couple of monitors. Suddenly the air filled with the sound of metal hitting metal. A soft but steady clump sound repeated over and over like footsteps.

"Oh yes there is." said a voice.

Everyone looked up to see Chalk walking into the room.

"Chalk?!" said Sonic completely surprised.

"Who else Sonic?" replied the rabbit.

"What do you mean Chalk?" asked Alicia.

"No way we can stop it? Somehow I don't think so. We still have one thing that could." replied Chalk.

Jet's eyes suddenly widened.

"Of course!" he said, his voice filling with a rekindled hope, "THEM!"

Jet pointed frantically at Chalk and Silvia blinked.

"What?! The Angel Suits? You can't be serious! None of our pilots can use them and none of you have tried them yet." she said.

"It's our only shot though." replied Chalk.

"Chalk are you feeling alright?" asked Sally.

"Perfectly Sally!" replied Chalk snapping her head in Sally's direction.

Sally actually jumped at the look in her eyes. It was bright and committed like she had been back in Knotlake and on Little Planet.

"How long do we have before that thing is launched?" asked Sonic.

"Two months maximum is our best estimate, could be as short as a month." replied Silvia.

Sonic looked at Sally, then Chalk and then Jet and Alicia. Each of them gave him a swift nod as he looked at them.

"Let's do this!" he said, "Let's do it!"

"Let's do it to it." smirked Sally.

"Hell yeah!" cried Jet leaping onto the map table.

"Jet get off the table." snapped Sally.

"Yes." replied Jet quickly getting off the table.

"You're serious?" asked Silvia completely stunned.

"Totally!" replied Sonic.

"You're actually serious about going in against this thing with just five Angel Suits and without any training?!"

"Yes."

Silvia just looked at Sonic in disbelief for a moment before a small smile spread across her face.

"What's the minimum time it will take them to complete the Phantom at our worst estimate?" asked Silvia still looking at Sonic.

"One month, one week and 4 days." replied Harry, "That is according to our latest covert report."

"Well get a new one! Find out now! In the meantime I want Angel's 1, 2, 4 and 5 prepped and brought down to the port launch bays now!"

"What?"

"You had your shot Harry and blew it! Now it's their turn."

Sonic gave Silvia a small smirk. Silvia looked away from him and looked at the others.

"You have one hour and I want you down in the launch bay. If you're going to do this you'll need one hell of a training program." she said, "Chalk I'll need you down in the bay now so we can prep your suit."

Chalk just gave a small nod.

"Alright people, let's move!"

-----------------------------------------

"Ok you all set?" asked Silvia.

In front of her stood Sonic, Sally, Alicia and Jet, now all equipped with their Angel suits, and Chalk, who was already equipped. They stood in the main port hanger of the Saratoga near the huge space doors. The doors were currently open and the force field was in place to stop space rushing in.

"I think so." said Sonic a little unsure.

"Good, let's go over everything once more ok." said Silvia with a nod, "You flight controls are mounted on the right arm console. Forward and backward movement are controlled from the stick, remember to lean into the direction you want to go. Roll is also controlled from that stick to. To turn you have to shift your weight in the opposite direction and roll towards the direction you want to go, that might take some getting used to ok. Alicia, you'll have to be extra careful with those extra thrusters. One wrong move and you could really be in trouble."

Alicia gave and understanding nod and checked over her controls once more.

"Now for the moment we'll just be trying to get to grips with the suit controls so you're weapons won't be activated. You'll be launched using the fighter catapults over there." continued Silvia.

"Hang on a second." said Jet, "I just thought of something, that's space out there and…we haven't got any space suits."

Jet looked out at the blackness. He liked space for the most part but the incident on the Phantom when he had been pushed out of an airlock still scared him. Those seconds had been the most frightening of his entire life.

"You don't need one Jet." chuckled Silvia, "Let me explain. The Angel Suit provides its own atmosphere much like a planet does. It creates a gravity field around you and traps an atmosphere inside it thus allowing you to survive. The suit also provides heat to stop you from freezing to death. These systems are heavily safeguarded and if necessary the suit will shut down to keep them running so you don't have to fear unless you get severely beaten up ok. As this is a test flight it's highly unlikely that'll happen unless you crash into the hull too much. Now if we're all set let's get started, we're short on time as it is."

"Alright people let's move." said Sonic still sounding slightly unsure of himself.

He turned and started to walk towards the catapults Silvia had mentioned. Sally and Chalk followed swiftly behind. Jet and Alicia though didn't move for a moment. They both bent over forwards to a forty five degree angle so that the tail fins of the suit didn't bash against the ground.

"I wish I was taller." moaned Jet.

"Same…life's too awkward sometimes." replied Alicia.

The pair walked towards the catapults a little behind the adults, it gave the pair a little time to talk.

"Scared?" asked Jet.

"Like nothing on Mobius." replied Alicia fiddling with her controls again.

"Same, this is kinda cool but man…"

"Yeah I know. I don't know what to expect and…well you know what happened to those fighters."

"Hey don't worry Alicia, we'll be fine. Someone has to show those Alliance guys who is boss right? We're fifty thousand times better than them."

"You're right Jet…guess I'm just apprehensive about this. I mean I helped when we were battling Robotnik but this is so much bigger."

"I didn't know this Robotnik guy but he sounded pretty bad, guess we'll just have to see how it goes eh."

"Yeah."

"Yo kids hurry up will you." called Sonic.

"I'm not a kid! Young adult!" replied Alicia.

"AYE!" groaned Sonic.

The pair of them approached the others just as Sonic was being set up on the catapult. His boots were being secured into the launchers fitted on the ground as they came to a stop.

"Ok then everyone, take a spot and we'll get you ready." said Silvia.

"Good luck honey." said Sally leaning just enough to plant a kiss on Alicia's cheek.

"Thanks mom." replied the squirrel.

"You too Jet." said Sally standing up.

Jet just gave Sally a small salute and turned towards his launching pad. Pretty soon all five of them were fastened into position on the catapults. Silvia and everyone else had retreated out of the bay and entered a small command centre designed for the Angel Suits. Finally they all received a message through the comm unit attached to the headband.

"Ok everyone you better activate your atmosphere generation systems. That's the green button just below the main control stick."

Each of them looked and sure enough a small green button marked "AGS" was clearly visible. One by one they pushed it and, with a whoosh, a bubble of air appeared around them. It was an odd feeling, the gravity created by the suit seemed to pull them more into it. A flood of warmth then enveloped them as the heaters activated.

"Woah now that was odd." commented Sonic.

"You'll get used to it." replied Silvia over the comm, "Now we'll be launching you one at a time starting with unit one, that's you Sonic, and ending with unit five. Remember what I told you, head down and brace yourself. It's not a walk in the park."

"Joyous. Ok let's get this over with." replied Sonic.

"Stand by. Catapult systems ready. Launching in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, launch."

Sonic would have thrown up his lunch if he had eaten in the last few hours. The catapult beneath him shot forward throwing him forwards with such a force he nearly fell over backwards. However he had been ready and leaning forwards as the catapult had gone off so everything went well. He hit the force field and the catapult released sending Sonic hurtling out into space for quite some distance. He took a sharp gasp and then, realising the atmosphere was round him, relaxed and looked around. It was an odd feeling, no up, no down, no nothing, just blackness in all directions. He looked back at the Saratoga and was, for the first time since his arrival, able to get a good look at the ship. It really was huge but also looked like a ten year olds science project in its construction. Just then there was a loud scream over the comm and he looked back to see Sally flying out of the bay. She passed close by and came to a rest near him but a little further from the ship than him.

"You ok Sal?" he asked quickly.

"Um…yeah I think so. I just realised I need a lot more fibre in my diet." replied Sally taking a few deep breathes.

Next out was Chalk and for the most part she had no trouble. She had after all been walking around for the past two weeks in that thing and was probably used to the weight of it by now. She came to a gentle stop around where Sally was and looked so graceful Sonic would have called her a professional if he didn't know this was her first time. Alicia's trip out was much like Sally's. A loud scream and then a lot of heavy breathing. Alicia's finishing position was a little higher than the rest of them, probably because she twisted as she left the bay, throwing her upwards. Lastly came Jet and with it a complication. As Jet sat on the launch pad waiting for his turn he had been thinking. The incident on the Phantom was forefront in his mind and he found himself getting more and more nervous as it came closer to his turn.

"Alright Jet, you're up." said Silvia.

"I've been thinking Silvia, I dunno about this." replied Jet.

"Jet it'll be fine. This is just a test run, trust me you'll do ok. Catapult launch in 5, 4…"

Jet looked out at the blackness and one moment flashed before his eyes. Pounding on a small glass window as the infinite darkness of space surrounded him, suffocating him, killing him.

"…..no…NO!" he cried turning to the side.

"Jet straighten up before…!"

It was too late, the catapult fired sending Jet hurtling forwards. The force and his position twisted him even more and with a loud crack his left ankle snapped like a twig. He screamed but couldn't do anything about it as the catapult stopped and he was thrown tumbling head over heels into space. Jet managed to look around him as he tumbled and realised where he was. Blackness was all around him and he panicked. Holding his breath he continued to tumble head over heels as he arced away from the other Angel Suits.

"Jet!" cried Sonic as he watched the cat spiral away.

"Jet answer me! Jet are you alright?" screamed Sally.

"Sweet lord of Mobius…" whispered Chalk slowly.

"Jet? Jet it's Alicia, are you ok?" said the squirrel calmly although her voice was clearly panicked.

"Can't breathe…" came a faint reply.

"Jet!" cried Alicia.

"Can't….breathe….cold….can't….."

"Jet listen to me! You can breathe! Breathe Jet!" urged the squirrel.

"I…."

The comm went silent and Alicia started to breathe heavily herself.

"Jet?" she whimpered softly.

"Alicia…" came a response.

"JET! Are you alright?"

"I….it hurts."

"Alright everyone sit tight, I'm sending out a ship to pick you up." said Silvia's voice.

"Jet, I'm glad you're alright." said Alicia with a sigh.

-----------------------------------------

It was a short while afterwards and everyone had been picked up and brought back to the Saratoga. None of them had actually got to test their suit in anyway and for now future training had been called off until the current situation had been analysed. Right now Jet was in a hospital bed with his ankle in bandages. It was badly swollen and definitely broken. Alicia sat next to him, chewing on a sandwich slowly as she watched him. So far Jet hadn't said anything and was just staring at the ceiling. Finally Alicia decided to break the silence.

"Jet what happened out there?" she asked quietly.

Jet turned slightly to look at Alicia and then closed his eyes, the young cat seemed visibly disturbed. Alicia reached forwards and took hold of his arm causing Jet to open his eyes again.

"You can tell me Jet." she said.

Jet sighed lightly and turned away, his ears drooping slightly.

"I…I freaked out 'licia." he replied.

"Why? You saw us go first? There wasn't any problem."

"I know but…I don't feel safe in space."

"What? How can you say that after all the space flights you've done? You seemed quite at home on the shuttle."

"Yes but that was on the shuttle…with an atmosphere…"

"Jet?"

Alicia raised her brow in puzzlement.

"Jet is there something you're not telling me?"

"Yes."

"Will you tell me?"

Jet slowly bit his lip and looked up at Alicia.

"Ok, it happened back on the Phantom. It's the one part I leave out when I tell the story. Just before Links rescued me they…they were going to kill me and mother."

Alicia remained silent, she already knew this bit.

"Well they…they put me in an airlock and blew the hatch. I…I almost died."

"What? But you said Links rescued before they did anything."

"That's not entirely true. I don't like thinking about it, give me the shudders."

As if to cement this statement Jet's body gave a shudder and his cheeks went white slightly.

"I couldn't breath and it was so cold, I…I fear it now."

Alicia leaned forwards and gave Jet a very large hug. She stayed in this position for quite some time and neither seemed to want it to stop. Finally Alicia leaned back and spoke.

"That better?" she asked.

"A little…I guess." replied Jet, "Thanks."

"Not at all Jet. I won't tell anyone else unless you want me to ok. They'll no doubt ask you themselves though later."

"I know, guess I'll have to tell them the whole story this time."

"It's not that bad Jet."

The pair smiled at each other and continued to talk softly. Above them in the covered gantry stood Sally. She herself was smiling down at them as they spoke and then hugged.

"Ah Alicia, you really are turning into a little mother." she sighed to herself.

She turned and was about to walk off when a dull metallic clomping sound caught her ear. It gradually grew louder and Chalk appeared around a corner in the gantry. She was still wearing the full Angel Suit and was now looking a little less energised than earlier. She walked up to Sally and stopped, looking down at the ground.

"Hi Sally." she said slowly.

"Chalk, I've been wanting to talk to you. I have a question for you." replied Sally.

"I guessed as much. I have a question for you too but my question will probably be the answer to your question so you go first." replied Chalk still looking down.

"Chalk…why the sudden change? It's been two week now and during all that time you've been sad and distant from us."

Chalk looked away even more as Sally continued to speak.

"And then suddenly you appear in the doorway eyes blazing and looking ready to tear things apart with your bare hands. What's going on Chalk?"

Sally watched as Chalk slowly lifted her head and looked at Sally. Chalk's face was now sad looking again, her fiery attitude extinguished.

"Something happened Sally. Well they have been happening since this happened. You remember when T2 first found me and everything happened?"

"Yes Chalk."

"I was finally freed and joined your group but something was still missing."

"You mean your memories?"

Chalk gave a small nod.

"Yes Sally. I couldn't remember anything from before I was captured apart from who I was."

"Couldn't? Don't you mean can't Chalk?"

"No Sally…I don't know how but since this happened to me I've been getting…flashes. I don't know what they are or what relevance they have but I know one thing, they're memories."

Sally's eyes widened but was cut off by Chalk before she could speak.

"There's something else Sally. Before I came into the room I had been sitting in one of the hangers by myself. I got another flash but this time it was different. It wasn't just a flash, it was a full memory. A memory of my mother Sally, I know who she is, I know what happened to her."

"My lord Chalk, what happened?"

"I was captured by Robotnik and I had always thought I must have been out walking and was found by him but I wasn't. He…he came to me. He attacked my village during my eighteenth birthday and….my mother was killed."

Sally's eyes were wide now and full of sadness. Gently she leaned forwards and placed an arm around Chalk's shoulder. The rabbit in turn tried to hug Sally back but found she couldn't because of the suit around her. She dropped her arms to her side and resorted to dropping her head into Sally's shoulder. To Sally's amazement she didn't start to cry though.

"He killed her Sally, he killed her and then used me." whimpered Chalk softly.

"Chalk it's alright, calm down." cooed Sally putting her other arm round Chalk.

"It's not alright Sally. She died and….I couldn't even remember. I was right there and I couldn't even remember it. If I hadn't come with you on this trip I probably never would have remembered, I wouldn't have known that she died."

Chalk was now starting to shake but had yet to start crying. Sally drew her even closer and squeezed her lightly.

"Sally I want…I want you help me remember. I want to remember it all." said Chalk slowly, "Will you?"

"Chalk you don't even need to ask that, of course I'll help you." replied Sally.

"Thank you Sally." sniffed Chalk, "Thank you so much."

"Any time Chalk, come on now. Let's go somewhere else more private."

Sally released one of her arms and turned to face the corridor. Together the pair walked away slowly with one of Sally's arms still round Chalk's shoulder.

-----------------------------------------

"So what do we do now?" asked Sonic leaning back in his chair.

Sonic sat in Silvia's office with the president and Captain Harry. The captain was looking his usual disgruntled self and Silvia seemed to be deep in thought.

"What can we do?" asked Silvia, "There's no way four of you would ever be able to destroy that ship, I was unsure at five to start with. Jet won't be back on his feet for a while, his ankle is pretty badly injured."

"So what are we doing to do? Sit back and wait for them to launch that ship?" asked Sonic angrily sitting up, "You mean to tell me we've got no way of stopping them? The Alliance will no doubt be suspicious now with this latest attack, they might even come looking for us. From what I can gather the Phantom was pretty advanced and this thing is a step up from that. They could wipe us out in an instant!"

"You say that as if we don't know." snapped the captain, "We do! You think we like this situation any more than you? We don't but there's nothing we can do."

"What about a covert attack?" said Silvia raising her head.

"Wouldn't work. The security is apparently very tight and our operative wouldn't get anywhere near that ship." replied Harry, "It's…hopeless."

"Nothing is hopeless." said Sonic sitting even more forward, "There's always a way to solve things! We wouldn't have come this far if we hadn't already figured that out."

Sonic stood and walked off a few paces rubbing his chin.

"What to do, what to do." he muttered to himself.

"Don't kill yourself thinking." said Silvia, "The captains right."

"Oh not you too, geez! Come on! Back on Mobius we've been through worse than this, we've been through things that would make your mind bulge. You should know that Silvia from the story we told you. Marrying Sally has taught me one thing and that is never to give up. I knew that before I married her but it made much more sense afterwards. Now I'm going to go and talk to her and we will come up with something. You two can stay here and throw the negative vibes around as much as you like, I'll get back to you when I have something."

With that Sonic turned and left the room leaving both Silvia and Harry to blink and look at each other.

"My! He has an attitude." stated Harry.

"Yes but maybe that's what we need." replied Silvia.

-----------------------------------------

Sally closed the door to her quarters and locked it, hopefully nobody would disturb her while she did this. She turned back to the room to see that Chalk had already found a seat and sat down on a small sofa. Sally walked over to her and sat down next to the rabbit. For a moment neither spoke, Sally just looked at Chalk who in turn looked at the sofa. Finally Chalk looked up and Sally spoke.

"Ready?" asked Sally.

Chalk just gave a small nod in response.

"Ok, start at the beginning Chalk, tell me everything you can remember."

Chalk took a deep breath and began to speak. She explained each and every flash she had experienced over the last few weeks. That took a good length of time in itself but then Chalk moved onto the one full memory she had. She described her birthday and the events surrounding it and then moved onto her mother. Chalk was so thorough she even described her mother down to the glint in her eye when she smiled. It amazed Sally that she remembered so much. When Chalk was done she fell silent and Sally sat back to think for a moment.

"Chalk? Would you mind if I had Nicole do a scan of your brain?" she asked.

"Huh? Why?" asked Chalk looking at her.

"Just a hunch Chalk, may I?"

"Well ok, I trust you Sally."

Sally smiled and took out Nicole from the pouch on her leg. She flipped her open and spoke.

"Nicole."

"Hey Sally, what's happening?" replied Nicole.

"Nicole drop the Sonic attitude for now and activate scan mode please."

"You got it, activated."

"Good Nicole."

Sally held out Nicole and pressed a few buttons as she ran the small computer up and down past Chalk's head. After she was done she spoke again.

"Nicole do you still have Chalk's original bio scan on file?" she asked.

"Affirmative Sally." replied Nicole.

"Huh?" asked Chalk.

Sally just raised a finger to her lips and looked back at Nicole.

"Cross reference and compare with the latest scan Nicole."

"Working."

"Sally what are you doing?" asked Chalk.

"I had a though Chalk, I'm going to compare your brain activity now with what it was like just after you were released from Robotnik's control." replied Sally.

"You think it's connected?"

"Could be Chalk."

"Comparison complete Sally." stated Nicole.

"Display Nicole."

Sally looked back at Nicole and started to scroll past reams of data, occasionally making a small interested sound or frowning. Finally she looked up and gave a small smile.

"Chalk do you remember that control device that was implanted in your head?" she asked.

"How could I forget it Sally? Seems I have a replacement for it now." replied the rabbit rubbing the headband that had fused with her head.

"Do you know how it worked?"

"Something about linking directly with my brain I think, why?"

"Hmm…interesting. I might have a partial answer for you Chalk, nothing concrete but it fits."

"Really?"

"Really, let me explain. When Robotnik captured you he implanted all these devices in your body to control you right and then Sonia destroyed that one on your head right. I think that disrupted the balance of the system controlling you."

"How do you mean?"

"Well I'm not sure, this is just speculation you understand."

"Uh huh, what?"

"I believe that the destruction of the control device linked to your brain caused some sort of neural block, blanking out all your memories. Maybe it was a safety feature installed by Robotnik so you wouldn't remember where he was hiding should you be captured, I don't know. But this first bio reading from just after you were captured shows that your brain was not acting normally. The entire section of your brain dealing with memories was nearly completely inactive, we didn't really know what to make of it until you told us you couldn't remember anything."

"What about now?" asked Chalk now leaning forward with interest.

"Well this latest scans shows a massive increase in brain activity Chalk. The memory centre of your brain has been pretty inactive for years and now it's like a party and I think I know why."

"Why?"

Chalk was about ready to tear the information out of Sally, being kept in this much suspense was killing her.

"You're wearing it Chalk." replied Sally.

Chalk looked down and over herself, the realisation hitting her like a ton of bricks.

"This suit?!" she cried.

"Yes Chalk."

"How?"

"Remember Robotnik was a human and even though his technology wasn't as advanced as these guy's technology it bears a lot of resemblances. I think the technology in your body reacted to the Angel Suit as it was calibrating itself earlier. The circuits in your body were suddenly given a jump start again but without the control device you retained your free will. Basically Chalk, as you merged with the Angel Suit it activated all the dead systems and opened your memories again."

Chalk blinked and took a few breathes before reacting.

"So this was a good thing." she said slowly, "I've been mourning over it for weeks and it's actually helping me."

She looked up at Sally a look of complete and total happiness filling her face. For the first time in weeks Sally saw the true colour of Chalk's face as it brightened like a rising sun.

"Do you think I'll get them all back Sally?" she asked quickly.

"If this scan is correct your memory centre seems to be recovering at an exponential rate Chalk. If it keeps going like this you might have all your memories back in a few months or so." replied Sally.

"All of them?"

The rabbit was close to tear she was so happy. Leaping off the sofa she screamed a shrill cry of happiness, spinning round on the spot before falling over due to the weight of her suit. Sally quickly jumped off the sofa and helped her back to her feet.

"Careful Chalk." she said.

"Thank you Sally! Thank you so much!"

Chalk flung her arms round Sally, nearly crushing her because of the suit arms. Sally squirmed under the hug for a moment before Chalk relaxed and stepped back. Chalk's face was a picture of happiness and Sally felt a warm glow inside her knowing that it was her that helped to do it.

"I…I can't sit still." said Chalk quickly glancing at the door, "I'm going for a run!"

Without waiting for Sally's reply Chalk raced to the door and unlocked it. She raced out of the door, her wings narrowly missing Sonic's face as the hedgehog came to a sliding stop outside the room. Sonic watched as the rabbit jogged as fast as she could down the corridor, eyes streaming with tears. Sonic continued to watch her for a moment and then stepped into the room. Sally sat on the sofa again, a smile of happiness and contentment spread across her face.

"What's wrong with Chalk now?" asked Sonic closing the door behind him.

"Wrong? Nothing is wrong with her at all, I think she's the happiest she's ever been in her life right now." replied Sally with a smile.

"Oh? Care to share it with me?"

"Later."

Sally looked up and instantly noticed Sonic's face. He looked tenser than a skin drum.

"Sonic what's wrong?" she asked.

"Those….uuuh! Those wimpy clown upstairs! That's what's wrong! 'Oh we're all doomed and there's nothing we can do.' Makes me sick!" replied Sonic slumping into the sofa next to her.

Sally leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. She brought a hand up and ran a finger in circles over a section of his arm as she looked up at him.

"They can't be that bad."

"You have no idea."

Sonic gave a rough sigh and looked down at Sally. His tense expression slowly dropped off.

"Sorry to spoil your mood with my problems." he said.

"Sonic nothing could spoil my mood right now. I've already helped one person and now I'm going to make it two, what's wrong?" asked Sally.

"Both Silvia and the captain feel that there is now no way to stop the Phantom 2. I can see their point, what can the four of us do? But we can't just give up, we have to stop that ship from launching. Question is how?"

Sally lifted her head off Sonic's shoulder and gave a nod.

"It's too easy to give up but yes the question is how as you said. We need to get past those defences and then somehow destroy the ship without endangering the colony in the process."

"Trust the Alliance to put civilians in the firing line eh."

"Those suits are probably small enough to evade most weapons fire but we need to get in close first, perhaps if we had a distraction?"

"Hmm…that could work. While I was up there we discussed the possibility of a covert attack. The captain wrote it off immediately as a bad idea, apparently security is tight and their operative wouldn't get close enough."

"But he doesn't have to get close, all he has to do is distract them for long enough for us to get in close to that ship."

"That's true Sal."

Sally stopped and fell into thought, Sonic waited for a minute and then spoke.

"Onto something Sal?" he asked.

"Maybe Sonic, remember when we were waiting in the shuttle and suddenly all those ships appeared around us. These guys have cloaking technology, what if the Angel Suits have it too!" replied Sally.

"Smooth Sal! We fly in during the chaos, launch everything we have and get out before they notice us."

"Exactly."

"That might just work Sally."

"It better." came a voice.

Sonic and Sally both looked up to see Alicia and Jet standing in the doorway. Jet still had his foot bandaged up and was leaning on Alicia for support. Sonic and Sally jumped to their feet.

"How long you been there?" asked Sonic.

"A few minutes." replied Alicia.

"Never mind that Sonic, Jet you shouldn't be out of bed with that ankle." said Sally rushing forward to help Alicia support Jet.

"I'm fine Sally." said Jet defiantly walking into the room with Alicia, "I'm going with you."

"What?!" cried Sally, "But…"

"Sally I'm going with you. This is my own fault and it's not that bad anyway."

"Not that bad? Jet you were screaming in pain when they brought you in." said Sonic.

"I know but I'm still going with you."

Sonic and Sally looked at each other before looking back at the cat.

"We'll have to see how you do in the test runs first though." said Sally.

Jet just gave a small smile and sat down with Alicia on the sofa. There was a moment of silence before a happy cry echoed down the hall and a familiar rabbit burst into the room.

"Everyone I've had an idea!" cried Chalk, "Let's go! Let's go do this! Let's get them!"

"Seems everyone is up on the idea." said Sonic rolling his eyes.

-----------------------------------------

"You WHAT?!" cried Silvia leaping from her seat.

"We're going for it again." said Sonic firmly for a second time.

"Are you completely crazy or just mentally unstable." continued Silvia.

"Silvia stop it, we've all thought this over and we've decided on a plan of action." said Sally.

"Oh? Care to share it with me?"

"Of course. Do you have a display in here?"

Silvia pointed to a large screen on the wall near her. Sally gave a nod and headed over to it. Switching it on she started to flick through various pages of data eventually arriving at what she wanted. Pressing a control a 2D map came up on the screen showing the Jupiter Station and the Phantom. Sally turned back to Silvia.

"We'll come at it from two sides." she started, "We'll be needing the help of your covert operative for the first stage of the attack."

"What kind of help?" asked Silvia.

"A distraction, we need your operative to create some sort of explosion or create an incident that will distract the main security forces and the attention of the port. Doesn't matter what it is, so long as it works. During the ensuing chaos we will fly in from the space side of the port and attack the Phantom."

Silvia leaned back in her chair and scratched her nose.

"I hadn't thought of using our operative in such a way. That might just work." she said.

"Another point Silvia, do the Angel Suits have cloak generators like your fighters?" asked Sonic.

Silvia gave a nod.

"Yes it's a standard system on board most of our ships."

Sonic and Sally looked at each other and smiled.

"So how do you wish to proceed?" asked Silvia.

"We'll begin the training again at once. We have a month and a bit right? That's more than enough time." said Sonic.

"I hope so, ok then, training will resume tomorrow at nine in the morning."

Sonic gave a nod, he was tired anyway and could use a rest before they did anything else. He made a move to leave when Silvia spoke again.

"I still have a small reservation though." she said.

"Oh?" asked Sonic, "What?"

"Jet, he's injured and he won't be able to control the suit as well as you."

"Hey!" cried Jet limping forward with Alicia supporting him, "This is my choice not yours."

"It's our Angel Suit Jet."

"Yes well…I don't care! I have to do this, if I don't I'm just going to keep running from my fear forever."

The others stood and listened, Jet had told them the full story a little earlier so they all knew what he was saying.

"Please Silvia, I have to."

Silvia sat back and closed her eyes.

"Very well Jet I'll authorise it but you'll have to get that ankle seen to big time before you go out and if it looks like you'll be a burden…"

"I understand, thanks Silvia."

"Thank me later, for now you best all get some sleep."

"That's true." said Sally, "Come on everyone, bed. We'll need all our strength for tomorrow."

As the group left the room Silvia began to ponder. These furries were certainly something, she just hoped they had what it takes to make this work.

-----------------------------------------

The next morning the hanger was buzzing with activity. The group of five stood wearing their Angel Suits again and all looked as determined as the next. Jet's ankle was strapped up in so many restraints he couldn't move it an inch and although he winced in pain with every step he took he was set on going ahead with his decision. Silvia had opted to let the group launch themselves this time rather than use the fighter launch pads, Jet couldn't use a launch pad anyway with his ankle.

"Ok everyone we're all set when you are." said Silvia over the comm.

"Right, ok you lot let's motor." said Sonic walking forwards.

The huge force field covering the open launch bay was mere inches away now and Sonic quickly activated the atmosphere systems encasing himself in a bubble of warm air. Everyone else soon did the same and stepped forwards next to him. He reached forwards and pressed his hand against the force field only to have it push back at him.

"You'll have to take a good run at that to get through it." informed Silvia, "That's why we use the catapults."

"Understood."

"Sonic allow me." said Chalk taking a step backwards.

With a small dart Chalk raced at the force field and hurled herself at it. The field split around her and allowed her to pass through as she spread her arms wide and bent over backwards slightly as if she was leaping off a bungee rope platform. She was in space a moment later and floating in the starry blackness. The force of her dart sent her tumbling over forwards and for a second she lost all sense of direction before she remembered Silvia's instructions. She quickly reached for the thrusters controls and activated them causing the suits flight wings to spread out behind her and the engines to ignite. Swinging her feet backwards and bending over forwards the spin soon stopped and she came to a gentle stop. Chalk quickly idled the thrusters and then looked over her shoulder at the bay. She had drifted a few hundred meters from the ship now and the bay looked quite small now.

"Come on it's not too hard!" she cried.

"Ah Chalk don't yell! You might be a long way away but remember the comm!" growled Sonic.

"Oh sorry, my mistake." said Chalk in her normal voice.

"Better, I'm coming out."

A bright prick of light flared on the bay and Chalk watched as Sonic sailed up next to her. Unlike her, he had actually used the thrusters to push himself out of the bay. Sally was next followed closely by Alicia and Jet who came out together.

"Ok Silvia we're all out." informed Sonic.

"Well you've already beaten our pilots." replied Silvia, "None of them could get out of the bay without flapping around like drowning swans."

"Heh! Well what do you expect from us?"

"After seeing this little performance from all of you I expect a lot. Now we'll start with basic suit operations. Forward and backward movement, rolls, turns, things like that. The controls are sensitive so you don't have to push them far to get a reaction."

"Ok then, what first?"

"Up to you, I'm not going to spoon feed you if you're this determined to go through with it. Try some basic movements like I said, you know which control that is. If you get in any trouble I'll have a ship pick you up."

"Got it Silvia, ok guys you heard her."

Sonic pushed forward on his controls and slowly the power from the suits thrusters increased, sending him forwards with a gradually increasing speed. The others all did the same, moving in different directions as to gain a bit of distance from each other. Jet looked the most uncomfortable of the lot but he seemed to be coping although everyone could hear his heavy breathing over the comm.

It wasn't long before the entire group was practicing small movements. Alicia 's movements seemed to be very erratic and occasionally she'd give a small cry of shock. Having twice the number of thrusters on her suit gave her twice the acceleration and with the sensitive controls it was taking her a while to get to grip with things. Chalk was having a very good time, she seemed to be handling the suit better than any of them but then she was merged with it to begin with. Despite his injuries and hesitation Jet was also doing well now. The cat was used to piloting craft and he seemed to get to grip with the new controls very quickly. Although he couldn't move his leg much, and hence some of his movements were slow, he was accurate and controlled with it. Sonic and Sally were practicing straight forward movements near to each other. The pair seemed to be doing a pirouette in space as the two suits danced past each other with gradually increasing speed. An hour past but still they continued to practice, soon that hour grew to two and finally Silvia called them in. The group seemed stunned that so much time had passed but obeyed Silvia's orders and gently brought the suits in for a landing in the bay. As they landed Silvia was already waiting for them with the biggest smile they ha ever seen.

"Welcome home!" she exclaimed, "That was exceedingly impressive."

"Why thank you Silvia." replied Sally removing the headband from her head, "That was actually a lot of fun."

"I'll say." agreed Sonic, "Once you got to grips with it that is."

"Well you've accomplished more in two hours than our pilots did in two months there. I'm going to accelerate the program if none of you have an objection."

They all shook their heads, the sooner they got onto the more complex stuff the sooner they could go. This was after all a race against time. Slowly the group extracted themselves from their suits, apart from Chalk, and returned to their rooms to rest. Even so as they travelled back all the talk was about the mission and what they would do next time went out. The air was buzzing with excitement.

-----------------------------------------

For the next few weeks things passed by smoothly. Training flights were conducted everyday and on occasions twice a day depending on how well things were going. Everyone had now got a firm grasp of the suit movements. Alicia, now able to handle eight thrusters, was flying circles around everyone, it was quite a spectacle to watch and there had been times that the entire ship had stopped working to watch the sessions going on outside. In the last week the group had moved onto weapons training and they were all coping for the most part. Sonic, armed with two high powered beam rifles, was making a nice job of his training. The fast firing double guns suited his personality and he was becoming quite a good shot. Sally had been able to integrate Nicole with her suit making her secondary support features all the more potent. She seemed to be pairing up with Sonic in most cases, providing back up fire from her beam gun but also adding her suits support element to his cause. The pair had already demonstrated their ability when they had gone up against a Coalition frigate. The frigate hadn't stood a chance and it was a good job they had been using blank rounds or the Coalition would be short one ship.

Chalk had found it hard to let go of Catrina but she was now enjoying her new weaponry. Armed with a very large particle gun and a weapon called a Jackhammer, basically a huge rocket fired battering ram on a large metal cable, she was making herself into a one rabbit army. During a test against some asteroids Chalk had been allowed to use the particle cannons full power and even the designers of the weapon had been amazed at its output. They had worked out from the blast that it could carve a hole through even the Phantoms shields and hull, although destroying it was another matter.

Alicia was also going it alone for the most part but Jet seemed to be following along behind. Alicia, being the quickest in the group had been given a nice supply of short range weaponry. She was enjoying her plasma shotgun but was having more fun with her other weapon. What at first glance appeared to be a shield was actually a beam spread gun called a Harmonica. Once activated it opened down the middle and revealed thirteen beam guns mounted inside that fired at the same time. These massively destructive weapons coupled with her speed was making her a force to be reckoned with but on occasions she got too carried away and was glad that Jet was present to watch her back. Jet's weapons consisted of a long range beam sniper rifle, which he was becoming a good shot with, and also a spread missile system. Basically one missile was fired but upon nearing the target it spilt into a series of smaller missiles creating a broad spread of damage. Because of the long range element of Jet's weapons he had also been equipped with a prototype beam sword which he was becoming very fond of.

After another very profitable training mission the group had returned to the Saratoga to relax. Spirits were very high and the feeling on the ship was that this might just work. Sonic was powering down his suit ready to depart himself when he noticed something he had been meaning to ask about. On his right arm control pad was a small red button labelled WC. He'd never been told what it did and was very curious. The rest of the group had packed up now and were moving off as Silvia approached him.

"Sonic, you did well out there." she said.

"Thanks, I'm amazed how far we've come in a few weeks." he replied.

"Yes it's impressive."

Sonic looked back at his control panel and frowned at it.

"Something wrong?" asked Silvia catching the look.

"Huh? Oh nothing wrong, just a bit of puzzlement."

"What?"

"This button marked WC. I've mentioned it to Sally and Chalk and they don't seem to have one on their suits. I've also looked at Jet and Alicia's suits and can't see one either. Now I'm more or less certain it's not a bathroom feature so what is it?"

Silvia gave a chuckle.

"It's not a bathroom feature is it?" asked Sonic.

"No it's not." replied Silvia still chuckling.

"What is it then?"

Silvia stopped chuckling and became serious.

"I've not been entirely honest about the capabilities of your suit Sonic and I had a feeling you'd ask about this sooner or later. You might have noticed that your suit moves a bit slower than the other suits yes."

"I had noticed it at time. Sally occasionally had to slow down so I could keep up on a few attack runs."

"Yes, well there's a reason. You're suit is a prototype unit."

"Prototype? In what way?"

"Well for a start it's slightly more heavily armoured hence the reason you're slower but there is one main reason and it's all down to that little red button."

"So what is it?"

Sonic began tapping his foot impatiently, he got the feeling Silvia was beating around the bush. Silvia took a quick look around to make sure no-one was listening and then spoke.

"WC stands for Wing Cannon."

"Wing Cannon?"

"Yes, basically the flight wings of your suit fold out to form a large cannon. It's only a prototype and so far your suit is the only the only thing in the Coalition armed with one."

"So why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

"Simply put Sonic you can only use it once."

"You mean at a time?"

"I mean ever! After one shot it has to be completely reconstructed. The energy output is so high that it literally tears the cannon apart."

"How big are we talking?"

"In theory? We don't really know. We haven't been able to test it as we would destroy the cannon."

"Then how do you even know it works?"

"We don't. I haven't told you about it because I don't want you to use it, it's too risky. As you asked about it I told you about it, but promise me you won't use it. For all we know it could blow up in your face."

Sonic looked away to one side looking a bit uneasy.

"In that case I won't."

"Good, now you better catch up with your friends before they come looking for you. Oh and don't mention this to them, no point in telling them about a weapon you can't use."

Silvia then turned and walked off leaving Sonic to puzzle. There was something odd there, why give the suit a weapon it couldn't use? He looked around the hanger to find that he was alone and gave a shrug.

"People never wait around do they?"

With a blur he charged from the hanger after the group.

-----------------------------------------

"Ok Alicia go left, I'll take the right with Sally. Chalk you're down the middle and Jet your on long range support!" ordered Sonic.

"Got it!" replied Alicia as her suit broke off to the left with a massive burst of speed.

Jet's suit suddenly came to a halt as Sonic and Sally broke to the side with Chalk carrying straight on.

"Ok this is it guys! Final test, let's do it." said Sonic.

"Five!" cried Jet.

"Four!" said Alicia.

"Three!" growled Chalk.

"Two." grinned Sally.

"And one!" finished Sonic.

"Angel Squadron GO!" they all yelled.

Suddenly a burst of laser fire swept past them all causing them to split up. Chalk flew straight through the middle of it, completely focussed on her target, the bridge. The ship they were facing was the Saratoga. It wasn't a match for the Phantom 2 but it gave the team a big target to practice on and semi view of what it would be like. Alicia was already dancing around nearer the ship. Her shotgun making short work of the laser turrets.

"Locked, firing!" she informed as her Beam Harmonica activated.

A broad sweep of fire flew from the shield sweeping across the hull leaving a painted train in its path. They weren't using real ammo, but every shot left a radio signal with it indicating what had been hit and what hadn't. From that the computers on the Saratoga was able to determine what would have been destroyed and transmit this to the suit's computers. As it happened Alicia's attack wiped out a further two defensive turrets before her computer beeped at her. She spun the suit to see a third turret tracking her but it was too late to fire. Seconds later the turret was struck by a thin beam of energy, which would have destroyed it but simply knocked it out.

"Take it easy 'licia! Can't watch your back all the time." came Jet's voice over the comm..

"No need." she replied as she dodged a further shot from another turret and turned her attention back to the ship.

Sonic and Sally were now going all out on the engines. Sonic was attacking with Sally providing support. Nicole was working full time to keep a static field up around Sonic's suit meaning none of the turrets could get a target lock on him. This was allowing Sonic to attack easily but left Sally to control the suit and dodge any fire. She was doing pretty well but wasn't really making progress.

"This is nuts!" she said to herself.

Her hands flicked across the controls and the large rocket launcher on her left shoulder came to life. A target lock was soon acquired by eye floating beside her and she fired. The missile streaked its way towards the ship, impacting just behind the engines and tearing a turret to pieces. Of course that's what would have happened.

"Good shot Sally!" said Sonic.

"I'm beginning to enjoy this." replied Sally with a smirk.

Chalk was now nearing her target. Unlike the others she was a weapon short as she couldn't use her Jackhammer on the ship but her cannon was still available to her. Coming to a sudden stop in the middle of the fire she raised it forwards, energy already building around it. With a crack the cannon split down the middle and Chalk locked on.

"Say goo'night Gracie…"

"All suit! Cease fire!" cried Silvia's voice.

It was too late for Chalk and she had to violently throw her arm up sending her cannon shot into the sun behind the ship. The turrets all over the ship stopped firing and Silvia spoke again.

"All suits return to hanger! I repeat all suits return to hanger. We have a situation!"

"Get to it people!" said Sonic quickly as he turned and flew towards the bay.

Alicia had soon gained on him and passed him slightly, flying into the bay ahead of him. Landing gracefully both he and Alicia were already getting out of their own suits as Sally, Jet and Chalk landed. Chalk raced forwards heading towards the briefing room as Sonic and Alicia joined her. Sally and Jet were slightly behind, Sally actually carrying Jet so they could move quicker. Although Jet's ankle had healed slightly over the last few weeks it still gave him trouble and he couldn't run on it yet.

Flying into the briefing room they all came to a stop to See Silvia barking at some other men. She noticed then and ordered for them to sit down quickly which they did. Moments later the room darkened and Silvia threw up a screen of data on a nearby monitor.

"Sorry to cut your time short but we've just received the worst news we've had yet. It seems that the Phantom is almost ready for launching." she said quickly.

"What?!" cried Sally.

"You said five weeks at least, it's not been four yet!" said Sonic.

"I know, our reports were wrong. Seems they shifted some of the ring construction workers to the Phantom 2 to speed construction. It appears our earlier attack has landed us in more trouble than we thought."

"I knew it!" growled Chalk banging her arm down on the table and causing part of it to crack off due to her suit.

"Chalk calm down please!" said Silvia.

Sonic gave a heavy sigh and nodded.

"Silvia's right Chalk, don't let it go to your head." he said.

"Grrg!" growled Chalk and lowered her arm.

"So what do we do?" asked Sonic, "We're progressing but we're still not completely ready for this."

"I'm not sure, that's up to you. According to our report they'll be ready to launch in a few days from now." replied Silvia.

"How long is a few days?" asked Sally.

"Six."

Sally sat back and murmured to herself.

"Six days, why?"

Jet was looking over the whole gathering with narrowing eyes. It was unexpected to say the least but if that was the reality they'd have to deal with it.

"Let's do it." he said.

"Hmm?" asked Sonic looking over at him.

"Let's do it!" repeated Jet, "So it's earlier than we thought but we can do it right. If we attack now while the ship is in space dock and not completely ready we'll have more chance than going up against it when it's in a fleet and fully prepared for us. This is our best chance however it comes."

Sally looked up and nodded once, her brow was lowered and she had a look in her eyes that said "to hell with it".

"I say go." she said firmly.

"If Jet's going them I'm going." said Alicia, "I have to give him something to do after all."

Sonic looked over at Chalk who just gave a smirk.

"You know my thoughts Sonic." she said.

Sonic gave her a nod before looking over the whole group and back at Silvia.

"I thought you might decide that, very well." she said standing up fully, "All sectors we are now at battle state five!"

Screens around the room started to flash with a red number five as Silvia turned back to the group.

"It'll take a couple of days to get everything prepared, until then I want you all to get some rest." she ordered.

The entire group looked at her, gave a short nod, and left the room. They headed into the ship towards the living deck but all of them knew they'd never get any sleep. Chalk peeled off early, instead heading down to the hangers.

"I'm going to do some thinking." she informed before leaving.

None of them attempted to stop her and carried on towards their rooms. They reached Jet's first and he gave everyone a smile as he entered his room. The three that remained went a little further and finally reached their own rooms. Almost immediately Alicia leaned against the doorframe and started breathing heavily.

"Alicia? What's wrong?" asked Sally.

"A few days…" replied Alicia in as shaky voice.

Sally closed her eyes for a moment and then leaned over to hug her daughter.

"It's alright dear." she cooed.

Sally could feel Alicia's heavy breathing as she hugged her but gradually it started to slow. Sally pulled back slightly to look at her daughter. Alicia's eyes were now fluttering as if she was falling asleep on her feet, the truth was that she was.

"You need some sleep Alicia."

"Yuh huh." replied Alicia looking at Sally, "I'm scared mom."

"Me too dear. Come on you can share my bed."

"Thanks."

Sally stood up and looked over at Sonic. He gave her a nod and then motioned at the sofa. Sally gave Sonic a small smile and nodded. She had also wanted to spend the night with him but right now Alicia was more important. She turned Alicia towards her room and ushered her inside. Sonic sat down on the sofa and looked at his knees for a moment. Surely this couldn't be happening? It had to be another training mission, a test of their readiness or something? But what if it wasn't? He sat back on the sofa and continued to think about it.

In Jet's room the cat was pacing slowly back and forth across his small floor space. He stopped for a moment and looked down at his left ankle. It was still a bit swollen and wrapped up in bandages still. He cursed under his breath and continued to pace, wincing on a couple of occasions as he did. He had more or less gotten over his fear of space but still wasn't completely comfortable. He winced again and then caught sight of a small waste bin nearby.

"Lousy stupid ankle!" he yelled and swung his bad foot at the bin.

It connected hard and sent the bin flying off into his room but also sent Jet plummeting to the floor with a scream. He clutched his ankle quickly trying to stop the throbbing pain that was now flowing through it. He sat mewing to himself for a few moments before he started to cry slightly. He knew he wasn't as good as the other in the suits and his ankle was the reason why. He couldn't manoeuvre as well as them because he wasn't able to move his left boot that much, however it didn't show that much because his suit was equipped for long range fighting so he didn't have to move but he knew it. It angered him, he knew he could be as good as them if not better but he couldn't show it. It all led back to the incident on the Phantom, that mental scare had cost him too much already.

"Well I won't let them get away this time." he said coldly looking up at the ceiling.

Chalk seemed to be in another world as she walked into the third hanger. A few mechanics were working on a large transport in the bay but they didn't seem to take any notice of Chalk. The rabbit stood at the back of the bay looking up at the transport, it was the same one they had arrived in all that time ago. She sat down on a cargo crate and slipped into thought. It was amazing to think how far they had come. The others back on Little Planet would be amazed at what had happened. Chalk began to wonder what they were doing now. Had Bunnie come back yet? Was Miles coping with the job of being in charge? She smiled gently, whatever was happening she shouldn't worry about it. They could cope fine on their own and right now she had her own things to think about it. The Alliance had done too much to her world already and it had to stop. A determined stare spread across her face like a rising sun as she continued to look at the transport in front of her. At length she closed her eyes and an image came to mind, a smiling grey face.

"Mother, I won't let them go any further. We'll stop them right here, I promise."


	5. Blazing Angels

Chapter 5 - Blazing Angels

The days ticked by and the preparations were slowly completed. Not much was said by anyone to anyone and an air of seriousness floated around the whole ship. The time soon arrived and the group joined up again in the main launch bay. They arrived to find their suits being loaded onto a small transport and were quickly ushered onboard as well. Silvia was there and handed each of them a small electronic pad as they boarded. She didn't say anything but gave each of them a firm nod and a salute as they passed by. The shuttle soon lifted from the bay and took off, flying the short distance to a waiting ship nearby. Once onboard the new ship turned away from the Saratoga and flashed out of sight heading towards its destination at it's best speed.

The group left the shuttle to explore the new ship. It wasn't that big, a standard Coalition corvette that was based on the Alliance designs, although it was fast and that's what was needed. Everyone passed the time in their own way. Sally found a quiet spot and started singing, Alicia sat quietly almost looking like she was asleep, Sonic paced back and forth across the bridge of the ship much to the officers annoyance, Chalk remained in the landing bay as the ship's passages were a bit too small for her and the attached suit and Jet didn't even leave the transport. The flight took a few hours but soon everyone had met up in the landing bay again and were busy preparing their own suit.

"You ready Sally?" asked Sonic fixing the boots to his feet.

"Not really but then there's no time for are you ready, we have to be ready." she replied.

"Quite true Sally." said Chalk stepping up next to her.

"Ready." inform Alicia as she stepped forwards, now fully fitted up in her suit.

"Good, Jet you ready?" asked Sonic.

"Almost." replied Jet as he slipped the headband over his head.

"Everyone clear on the plan?" asked Sally.

Each of them nodded in turn. The plan had been on the data pad Silvia had given them before they left. The ship would drop out of Star Drive for just enough time so they could launch and then make a hasty retreat. The corvette wasn't outfitted for fighting and wouldn't stand five seconds against the Ring or an Alliance ship. It would retreat and wait in a safe place until it was needed again. After that the plan was pretty much up to them, nobody had any real idea on how they would destroy the Phantom 2 but if they didn't try it would be worst.

"Nearing drop off point." came a loud boom over the bay, "Angel squad to ready status. Thirty seconds to Star Drive cut off."

"Ok everyone lets move!" said Sonic finishing with his suit and stepping forwards.

The entrance to the landing bay was much like the one on the Saratoga, a large force field separating the outside from the inside, but right now a large metal door was covering the exit. Each of them moved to stand next to it.

"Fifteen second." boomed a voice.

"Activate thrusters." ordered Sonic flicking a switch.

Each of the five suits powered up, lifting slightly off the ground as their thrusters activated.

"Ten second."

The group held their breath and waited. They could feel the ship starting to slow around them, it wouldn't be long now. Alicia could feel herself starting to shake slightly, she was definitely the most nervous in the group.

"Five seconds, prepare space doors for opening, Star Drive shut down in three, two, one."

The ship gave a brief shake signifying the cutting of the Star Drive and then the space door swung open. As the group looked out they could see the huge form of Jupiter hanging in the endless blackness. The ring was clearly visible around the centre of the planet and a small section stuck out at the mid point, which was evidently the port.

"Angel Launch! NOW!"

"GO!" cried Sonic.

He leaned forwards as his thrusters flared sending his hurtling from the bay quickly followed by Sally and Alicia. Chalk came next and finally, with a bit of hesitation, Jet. As they cleared the ship its engines flared and with a streak of light it disappeared into Star Drive again.

"Ok folks heads up, we're on our own now. Everyone activate cloaks and move to assigned positions." ordered Sonic.

Each of the five suits slowly shimmered and disappeared from view before fanning out hidden from view. Jet was hanging back looking at the ring as he assumed a covering position.

"You think they saw us?" he asked.

"No idea Jet but to be safe maintain radio silence." replied Sonic, "I'll give orders when and if they're needed, we all know what has to be done anyway."

"Roger." replied the cat.

Chalk was now moving forwards, straight towards the dock. Her job was to be the main attacking force whilst the other covered and her and created a distraction. Alicia was moving forward with Chalk before breaking off slightly and flying ahead to get in a better firing position. Sally and Sonic had broken off to the opposite Alicia had gone too and together they all moved forwards.

Sonic was thinking hard, had they been seen, it didn't look like it but you could never tell. He flashed his vision all over the place, getting threat data from his Eye. So far everything was green, not a single threat warning from anywhere and it was worrying him.

"I'm in position." informed Alicia.

Sonic looked over the whole ring structure again and nodded to himself.

"Ok everyone, wait for it." he said.

The group waited, the seconds slowly becoming minutes. Finally it happened, a massive explosion ripped across part of the ring quite a distance from the port.

"That's it! That's our decoy! Alicia go!" cried Sonic.

A sudden bright spot of light appeared out the darkness followed by a stream of energy beams tearing across space and slamming into a part of the ring structure. Alicia's Beam Harmonica was active and causing trouble already as it ripped through several defence turrets before they had a chance to activate. Moments later Sonic and Sally fired, sending a set of three stronger beams into another turret from a different position. Jet joined in the fun as he fired his sniper, sending a further turret into a smoking wreck. All, however, were put to shame as Chalk fired. Her particle cannon ripped straight across the hull of the Phantom itself, tearing of the outer layer of armour and a total of three turrets along the way.

The first attack had gone without a hitch but now the trouble started. All of them watched their displays as the Eye tracked every turret as it came alive and started to target them. Red warning cursors started to flash up all over, so many that they started to overlap and get confusing.

"Everyone break!" cried Sally.

Moments later the cannons fired filling the area with energy. All of them could see what Silvia was talking about when she said the ring had the fire power to take out the Saratoga.

"Disengage cloaks and move in." ordered Sonic, "Our weapons fire will give away our firing position anyway so there's no need wasting energy."

"Roger." replied Chalk and Jet together.

Sally and Alicia replied with a firm noise and moments later all five suits shimmered into view. Chalk immediately pushed forwards, spiralling through the oncoming fire as if it was nothing, heading for her target, the ship itself. The Phantom 2 was as large as its predecessor and at least as heavily armed although for the moment it seemed to be doing nothing. Chalk was glad of this, a target that didn't fight back was a sitting duck and she was going to take full advantage of it. Swinging her cannon round she made ready to fire but was interrupted by a very near miss from one of the rings cannons.

"You little…." she growled to herself as she swung towards the oncoming fire.

Swinging her left arm up her Jackhammer glistened in the darkness as the suns rays caught the diamond coated tip. She pointed it directly at the turret and a flurry of rocket engines ignited around the base of the unit. The point flew off flying through the space between her and the target and finally connected with the turret. The sharp point ripped into the turret smashing it to pieces in the process and Chalk activated the recoil, using the attached cable to reel it back in. Turning to face the Phantom again she was interrupted by yet another turret.

"Don't these bastards ever learn?!" she screamed.

Sonic and Sally were making little progress too. The pair was so close they could have been glued together and wouldn't have noticed. Sally was in front with Sonic taking a covering position behind her. Sally's suit not only had a physical shield but thanks to Nicole the mechanics on the Saratoga had been able to get an energy shield working also. Together these two barriers were allowing the pair to ignore most of the incoming fire.

"Talk about up close and personal." said Sonic passing one of his guns under Sally's arm to fire.

"Can the comedy blue boy and just fire!" roared Sally as she too aimed and fired.

Sonic was surprised, he'd never seen Sally this energised in a long time and frankly it felt good. The old girl wasn't loosing her touch after all. Sonic obeyed Sally's roar and shut up quickly, now wasn't the time for jokes as she had said. Turning his head back towards the Phantom he saw a whole new problem they hadn't anticipated.

"Oh….holy sweet Mobius." he said slowly.

"What now Sonic?" asked Sally.

"The Phantom, we got company."

Sally looked and gasped at the sight. Her Eye instantly registered the targets and highlighted them, a squad of Earth fighters.

"Since when was that thing armed?" she asked.

"Since Silvia's brilliant covert operatives missed them." replied Sonic.

"I've got them covered Sonic." came Jet's voice.

"Me too." added Alicia.

"Ok then, good luck you two." said Sally.

"Got it."

Jet turned his attention away from the ring and focussed on the fighters. So far he hadn't had to dodge any shots, he was too far away and hadn't fired that much, yet. Aiming his sniper forward he waited, his finger resting lightly in the trigger. On his HUD display two green circles were moving closer together towards the lead fighter. They started to blink faster and finally locked together over the fighter going red as the did.

"Got ya."

Jet fired, a hyper fast needle of energy streaking across space. The fighters had yet to actually take up any formation and the sudden weapons fire coming their way startled them. Jet's shot connected perfectly, passing straight through the lead fighter and turning it into a large fireball. The other fighters split up sharply but not before a cloaked Alicia had sneaked up behind them and blown away a second fighter with a blast from her shotgun. Now it was their turn to be targeted as the remaining fighters banked round, two heading for Jet and the rest tracking the cloaked squirrel. Jet immediately shot upwards as the fighters approached him. His suit wasn't equipped for close combat and his sniper took too long to aim in this situation. Saying that he still had a few things he could do. Pointing his left arm forward he activated his missile pod before pointing it at the approaching fighters and fired twice. His Eye quickly got a lock on the fighters and tracked the missiles towards their targets. The fighters banked away, letting off a few random volleys of fire as they did but Jet didn't have to dodge any of them. The missiles turned to follow the fighters and then suddenly split up. Each missile fragmented into ten smaller ones and shot off in all directions before the main missile detonated. Although one fighter managed to dodge the other was caught in the spray of fire and ripped apart.

"YES!" cried Jet happy with the result.

He suddenly yelped and swung to the side as the second fighter came round on an attack run. Without a second though Jet punched at the controls forcing the missile pod on his left arm to fold away and be replaced by a long beam of energy, a beam saber. He dodged the oncoming fire and then flew straight at the oncoming fighter. Startled by this sudden rush, the fighter banked and attempted to pull away from the crash course but this only made things worst. As Jet and the fighter passed each other the cat stuck his saber out in front of himself forcing it deep into the fighter's hull. The saber passed along the fighter's hull like a hot knife through butter and moments after they had passed each other it exploded violently. Jet came to a sudden halt and let out a loud scream. His ankle felt like it was on fire. Slowly he turned back to look at the fight and his Eye picked up everything. Alicia was quickly highlighted in green as she darted back and forth across the hull of the Phantom pursued by a couple of fighters. It was then that Jet's eyes widened. A single red target appeared on the hull of the Phantom followed by a second and then a third. Suddenly red targets started to appear all over the hull and Jet panicked.

"Alicia! Alicia the Phantom it's…"

His calls came too late. The Phantom's weapon banks were already charged and without a pause they fired. Jet caught Alicia's scream over the comm and screamed himself.

"Alicia? Alicia are you ok?!" he cried.

"ARGH! JET HELP!" came a reply before the sound of weapons fire cut the air.

Jet didn't wait a second longer and surged forward, baring the pain from his ankle for now. His beam sword was still out as he screamed into the battle zone and started to take wild slashes at everything. He landed on the hull of the Phantom with a crash and jumped towards one of the turrets. Swinging his saber round he drove it right into the top of the turret.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" he screamed jumping back as the turret exploded.

"JET!" cried Alicia.

"ALICIA! You alright?"

"Now…watch out!"

Jet spun to see a second turret now tracking him and had no time to react to it. Seconds later thirteen beams of energy flew in from above and ripped the turret to pieces. Jet looked up to see Alicia holding her Harmonica out in front of her and watched as she swung it over the hull taking out a further two turrets.

"Leave my Jet alone!" she cried.

"My?" asked Jet to himself.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as the remaining fighters came in at him. Switching off his saber, his missile pod folded back onto his arm. A scowl crossed his face he pointed upwards and fired. The three remaining missiles in the pod soared from their launcher and split almost immediately. The ensuing spray of missiles tore apart the oncoming fighters in a second as well as a turret on the Phantom's surface, it also flung Jet backwards into a spin. The cat wrestled to regain control but couldn't, red targets appeared all over his HUD as he spun and he closed his eyes. Suddenly he felt something impact him in the side and he stopped spinning. Opening his eyes he was met with Alicia's face staring back at him.

"Jet you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah but…ALICIA!" cried Jet.

Alicia spun just in time to see a flurry of energy beams heading straight for them and spun to the side, dragging Jet with her. However she wasn't fast enough and one of the beams struck the back of her suit ripping off one of the flight wings. The sudden loss of two engines sent Alicia into a spin herself and smashed her into the Phantom's hull face first.

"Alicia!"

"Jet! What's happening?!" cried Sally's voice.

"Sally Alicia is….oh god!"

"Jet?!"

Jet didn't have time to answer though as a second volley headed straight for him. He dodged also but still caught two of the beams, one vaporising the end of his sniper rifle and the other ripping off the two secondary fins on his backpack. From a distance Sonic and Sally watched the scene.

"Jet? Alicia? Answer me!" cried Sally frantically.

"Chalk! Can you see what's going on?" asked Sonic quickly.

"They're down. I repeat Angel four and five are down!" replied Chalk quickly, "I can't see either of them now."

"NO!" cried Sally.

Sonic had to grab her quickly before she raced onto the scene herself.

"Sally no! You can't do anything!" said Sonic.

"Sonic let go of me! We have to Sonic! We can't leave Alicia…"

"SALLY!" barked Sonic.

Sally was so startled she stopped struggling and looked at him. Sonic looked angry but also sad at the same time.

"Sally you can't do anything, they're probably already…."

"No…"

Sonic looked away back towards the Phantom.

"We're pulling out, Chalk!"

"I heard Sonic." replied Chalk.

"No…"

"Sally we have to go, we can't stay any longer."

Sonic leaned over and flicked a few of Sally's controls, activating her cloak before he activated his. He turned Sally away from the battle but the ground squirrel refused to leave. She ripped herself from Sonic's grasp and ignited her boosters. Sonic quickly flung himself in front of her and ignited his own boosters. The two suits sat in space, pushing into each other not moving.

"Sonic let me go! I have to go back for them!" cried Sally.

"Sally I know how you feel but…if you go back for them YOU'LL GET KILLED TOO!" replied Sonic.

Sally looked at Sonic and their gaze met. Sally understood what Sonic was saying but couldn't bring herself to accept leaving them behind. Just then they both felt a jolt from behind.

"Let's go." said Chalk's voice sadly.

The rabbits suit soon pushed through the cloaking field around the pair and appeared beside them. Chalk took a hold of Sally and leaned over to cut her thrusters. Slowly Sonic and Chalk ignited their own thrusters and began to retreat away from the battle pulling Sally along backwards as they did. Sally looked back at the huge planet and half built colony with shaky eyes.

"No…" she murmured to herself.

-----------------------------------------

Alicia slowly started to come round. Her vision was hazy and blurred but it didn't feel like she was in space. She couldn't move that well and her entire body ached from top to toe. Finally she managed to open her eyes slightly but all she could see was metal plating and rivets. With a groan she pushed down with her arms and lifted her head up. She blinked a few times and slowly the room came into view. What she saw sent her scuttling backwards until her back met a solid wall. She curled up and started shaking.

"No, no, no, it can't be, not again!" she said quickly, panic and fear filling her voice.

"Alicia!" said a familiar voice.

"Jet?" she replied lifting her head slightly.

"Alicia are you ok?"

Alicia looked up at the room again. The bars of her cell stared back at her but off to one side in the next cell she saw him. Jet was on his knees pushed up close to the bars looking directly at her. Summoning her strength, Alicia shuffled over to where he was and flung her arms through the bars pulling him into a hug.

"Jet!" she said slowly.

"Hey Alicia." replied Jet sadly, putting his arms round Alicia.

"Jet where are we?"

"I don't know but my instincts say…"

"…the Phantom 2?"

Jet nodded slowly causing Alicia to pull him closer.

"No not again…not again. Tell me it's not true Jet."

Jet didn't know what to say. Alicia had been an original captive onboard the Phantom and here she was, a captive on the Phantom 2.

"I'm…sorry Alicia."

Alicia just made a high pitched whine and continued to hold Jet tightly. Just then a door at the far end of the room opened causing Jet to look up sharply. A man was walking towards them alone. The lights in the room were good enough to allow the cat to see his face long before he reached the cell, he looked different to the other humans he's seen. Stopping the man looked at them both with his eyes crossed.

"When we first picked you up I thought the queen had shrunk and grown a tail." he said looking at Alicia, "You're a long way from home little furries."

"Who are you?" growled Jet.

"Me? My name is Chen…Chen Tanaka." replied the man.

Alicia looked up sharply, her ears pulled back in fear as she stared at him.

"T…Tanaka…?" she stuttered.

"Oh g…" said Jet trailing off.

Jet remembered the name well enough. He was the same man that had nearly dissected Sally. Even Jet pulled his ears back in fear as Tanaka continued.

"I see you know me, thought you might. Well as I was denied the pleasure of the queen the princess will have to do…oh and you too."

Tanaka gave a smirk at Jet causing the cat to growl and push his ears forwards.

"Over my dead body." he said sharply.

"Well if that's how you want it." replied Chen, "I'll be back later and then we'll begin. I have to go get ready now."

Chen gave them both a smile and walked off leaving the pair in silence. Jet could feel Alicia trembling beneath him now.

"Alicia, it's ok, everything will be fine." he said giving her a small squeeze.

"How Jet? How will it be ok?" asked Alicia pulling back from him slightly.

Jet looked into Alicia's brown eyes and then looked down towards the floor. He didn't have an answer for her but just then something else caught his attention.

"Alicia…you're…"

Alicia looked down also and for a split second Jet caught a look of embarrassment spread across her face. Alicia's dress was missing, for that matter so were the rest of her clothes and Jet's too. Furries were used to being naked for the most part but Alicia was rather sensitive about it. She didn't mind too much if it was just family but she was very conscious of it around anyone else. Jet didn't mind either way, he liked wearing a jacket as it kept him a bit warmer than his fur would but he normally didn't bother with anything else. This was the first time he'd seen Alicia like this and she looked absolutely beautiful, more so that normal. Her two tone light brown fur countered her dark brown eyes and her crimson hair just added that final "wow" factor. He couldn't help but stare slightly.

"Do you mind?" asked Alicia sharply.

"Sorry Alicia." said Jet looking away.

"It's ok I guess."

Alicia turned away and placed her back against the bars, her tail sticking into Jet's cell. Jet turned back towards her and placed an arm round her shoulder.

"You think they'll come back for us?" she asked.

"They better or we don't stand a chance." replied Jet.

Alicia glanced back at Jet and looked into her eyes. It seemed things weren't going well at all. How she wished that she was back on Little Planet, better yet back in Mobotropolis before it had been destroyed again. Why did their lives have to be so difficult? Alicia started to shiver slightly and she suddenly felt Jet's grip round her shoulder tighten.

"Don't worry Alicia. They'll have to go through me first if they want you." he said.

"You…you mean that?" she asked.

Jet gave her a look that said everything and she turned away. He really meant it. Before now she hadn't really been too sure of Jet, he was loving and caring but she didn't know if it was simply that no-one else was available or if he really did care for her.

"Alicia?" asked Jet.

Alicia didn't respond for a moment, she was thinking of past event and pondering. Looking back she spoke.

"Jet, do you remember earlier, I mean back on Little Planet before Basanda came? That one morning that…that you made me pancakes?" she asked.

Jet blinked and then looked away slightly.

"Yes." he replied, "Why?"

"I…I never got to answer your question properly. Would you…ask me again?"

"Ask…"

Jet thought for a moment and then blushed looking away as he did.

"I…I dunno if I should…I mean at this time."

"Please Jet."

"Well….ok I guess so." he replied looking back at her, "Alicia…do you…"

Jet coughed sharply and blushed again before continuing.

"Do you…have a boyfriend?"

"No." replied Alicia shaking her head, "But I was hoping that someone would like to be."

Jet and Alicia looked at each other for a moment, a message passing between them without them even having to say anything. Slowly the pair pulled closer to the bars and leaned forwards. Time slowed around them and the situation seemed to fade away as their lips slowly met. It was only a light kiss, a mere peck, but it made them both feel alive for a split moment before they parted. Alicia turned and leaned against the bars as Jet did the same, his arm snaking round Alicia's back and fiddling with Alicia's hair.

"Please come for us." said Alicia softly.

-----------------------------------------

"We shouldn't have left them!" cried Sally slamming her hands on the table top.

"Sally we have no idea if they're even alive!" countered Sonic.

Sonic and Sally stood at opposite ends of a small table with Chalk standing on another side. The pair had been arguing ever since they had been picked up by the ship and Chalk was getting very irritated by it. Slowly she leaned forwards and pushed her arms out to each side.

"Ok you two stop it. You already know what I saw." she said.

Sally closed her eyes and looked down at the table, a single tear fell from her eyes. Sonic gave a sigh and looked at Chalk as Chalk looked at him.

"Now can we get back to this?" she asked.

Sonic gave a small nod and sighed again as Sally looked up wiping her eye.

"Very well Chalk, it's all we can do I guess." she said.

"Sally, don't think I don't feel for you, I do! But we have to face the facts, Jet and Alicia are probably gone or if they aren't then they will be soon enough." replied Chalk.

"I know Chalk, it just…just hard to let go."

"I know Sally but let's get back to business. We can't let their memory die."

Sally nodded and looked back at the table, Sonic and Chalk doing the same. On the table were scattered images recorded from their HUD displays. Chalk picked up one in particular and passed it to Sonic.

"That's what I was talking about." she said.

"What's this?" asked Sonic.

"While all of you were busy I was trying to get into a good firing position to shoot the Phantom. I never got there but I did notice this. This is where the ring colony attaches to the port."

Sonic looked at the picture. He could see two large metal walls connected together by a number of thin metal beams.

"As far as I could tell a total of seven beams hold the two structures together and also act like bridges between the port and ring." said Chalk.

"You worked this out from a photo?" asked Sally.

"It didn't take much thinking Sally."

"So what's your idea?" asked Sonic.

"Most of the cannon fire was coming from the ring right? The Phantom let off a few blasts in the end but the port around it blocked most of its turrets. If we can separate the ship from the ring we'll have a better chance of taking it out." said Chalk.

"And if we sever those connecting beams the two parts will slowly move away from each other." finished Sally catching on.

"You got it Sally, it's worth a shot yes? If we let them complete that thing and launch it we won't stand much of a chance and neither will Silvia and her rebellion." replied Chalk.

"I agree Chalk, it's risky and they'll definitely be looking for us now but we came this far didn't we." said Sonic.

Chalk gave him a nod.

"One hour?" she asked.

"Try as soon as the suits are ready, tell them to get their rears in gear."

"You got it Sonic."

Chalk turned and jogged from the room as Sonic turned towards Sally. The ground squirrel was now leaning against the table biting her finger and looking at the ceiling. Sonic sighed and walked over to her, putting an arm round her shoulder as he did. Sally rolled over into his arm closed her eyes.

"I'm sure they'll be alright Sally." he said looking down.

"But what if they aren't?" replied Sally looking up at him, "What if they're dead like you said."

"Sally…"

"I should never have allowed them to come with us."

"Sally you can't talk like that. None of us knew something like this would happen."

"Yes but we knew whatever happened would be dangerous right. Three of us out here with only Miles at home. What if we all fall? What's going to happen to the Royal Family?"

"Sally, don't start worrying about that. We won't fall and if Alicia and Jet are alive we'll find them. If they've hurt my girl in any way I'll make them pay and then some."

Sally looked up at Sonic slowly. The hedgehog was looking away at the far wall now lost in thought. His face was tense and that was that oh so familiar glint in his eye.

"Sonic, always coming to people's rescue." she said.

"I just hope I'm not too late this time." he replied.

"Why not let me do it this time?"

"Huh?"

Sonic looked back at Sally as she pulled herself out of his arms and stood up on her own.

"What ya mean Sal?" he asked.

"I want you to let me handle that side of things."

"You mean…the rescue?"

"Yes Sonic, the rescue. Chalk's going to need someone to act as a distraction so she can sever those connections between the port and the ring and I'm better suited to a stealth search and rescue mission."

"Hang on a minute Sal, where'd this rescue mission suddenly come from?"

"You said it yourself a minute ago, if Alicia and Jet are alive we'll find them. Well I want to find them Sonic. Besides I'll be able to create a few additional distractions for you and Chalk."

"Got it all planned out I see."

"What do you expect from me Sonic?"

"Exactly that Sally, ok I guess there's no stopping you anyway."

"You're right Sonic, now let's go see how the preparations are going shall we?"

"Lead the way."

-----------------------------------------

Chen Tanaka slowly walked onto the Phantom 2's bridge. The area was a hive of activity, more so than normal after the latest incident. As he entered one of the officers turned towards him and saluted.

"Sir."

"What have you to report?" asked Chen.

"We've completed a complete sensor sweep of the entire area and found no trace of the other three units."

"I see, so they retreated. What's the damage?"

"Negligible sir. Both this ship and the Ring lost a few defence turrets during the attack, we lost a squad of fighters and the hull plating on B deck will need replacing."

"How long until those repairs are completed?"

"Shouldn't take more than a few days to replace the hull and turrets but the fighters are another matter."

"Yes I'm aware of that. What about those…things they were piloting?"

"They are currently being investigated on the ring sir. So far they've been able to determine that it's definitely Earth based tech and is similar to those fighters that burst in on us a few weeks back."

"Hmm…it appears our furry friends might have found themselves some inside help."

"It would appear that way sir."

"Ok I want those things taken apart and every little scrap of information pulled out of them. What about my preparations?"

"Nearly complete sir. Your room is almost ready for those two."

"Good good, when it's ready escort them and get everything set up. I'll be in my quarter relaxing for a while."

Chen turned to leave but gave one final order before he did.

"Put the scanners on full power. I've got a sneaking hunch that our furry friends might try again."

"Yes sir."

-----------------------------------------

"Everyone set?" asked Sonic.

"Stop asking that and let's go." replied Sally.

"Too right." agreed Chalk.

"Ok ok just checking."

The trio were now flying under cloak towards Jupiter from the rear. The ship had yet again jumped in, dropped them off and left again leaving them to do what they had to do. They all hoped that approaching from their blind side would not only surprise them but allow them to sneak in even closer than they would have otherwise. Slowly as they rounded the planet the large ring started to come into view.

"Head up people, here we go." said Sonic.

Sally and Chalk nodded and split up, Sally heading straight towards the ring as Chalk came to a stop. Swinging her particle cannon round a quick charge built on the gun before it fired. The beam streaked past Sally, missing her by mere inches, and carried on towards the ring finally slamming into the outer hull with a bang. Sally quickly swung her gun round and fired at the same spot Chalk had hit adding more damage to the hull plating. A further blast from Chalk hit the hull again and with a crackle it buckled, exploding and creating a hole in the armour.

"There's your way in Sally, good luck." said Chalk.

"Thanks Chalk, you two take care, I won't be long." replied Sally.

"Go give it to em Sally." added Sonic.

Sally didn't reply, instead she turned her attention towards the colony and shot into the hole at break neck speed.

-----------------------------------------

Alicia felt more helpless than a boiled vegetable. All she could do was stare up at the ceiling above her and wait. She was bound to an examination table with Jet in a similar state beside her. She had earlier tried to break the bonds but they were too secure for her to slither out of. The sound of someone humming filled the air and, looking up as much as she could, Alicia could see Chen moving around a little way off. The human seemed to be enjoying whatever he was doing and frankly it was freaking Alicia out. No-one had told her what was going to happen but she remembered her mother's story, she remembered Chen and what he had nearly done to Sally. And now he was going to do it to her instead, and Jet too. As Chen turned to look at them Alicia gave a gulp.

"Now then should we get started?" he asked, "I think we should, you both comfy."

"I'm gonna enjoy ripping your face off when I get out of these restraints!" growled Jet fiercely.

"Such bad manners, is that any way to talk to your host?"

"Host?" scoffed Alicia trying to swallow her fear, "Some host!"

"My isn't the princess a feisty little thing, reminds me of her mother."

"My mother is going to tear you to pieces!" screamed Alicia at the ceiling as she shut her eyes tight.

She couldn't keep her fear in, she was completely struck by it. Chen waved his finger back and forth making tut tut sounds.

"But your mother isn't here is she. Yes I think I'll start with you my dear. I was most interested in your mother but you'll do as a substitute."

"You lay one finger on her and I'll…" cried Jet.

"You'll what? Strain at your bonds?" laughed Chen, "No little cat this is what you get for going against us I'm afraid. Accept it."

Jet strained against his bonds, growling as he did, he wasn't going to get away with this. Looking over at Alicia he suddenly stopped, the squirrel was looking straight at him, lying completely still as she did. Jet could tell from her face that she was terrified and sad but he hardly seemed to notice this over another aspect. Her face was…lifeless, Alicia wasn't even trying to stop Chen as he set about his preparations. Jet couldn't believe it, had she given up? No! She couldn't have! He began to pull at his restrains again frantically as Chen started to humm once more. Just then a small alarm started to sound, it wasn't that loud but it was clearly audible. Chen looked up and frowned.

"What now?" he asked himself moving away from Alicia to a large screen on the wall. He pressed a few controls and another mans face appeared.

"What's going on?" asked Chen calmly.

"Sir we've detected those three units again, they are moving in from the blind side of Jupiter." replied the man.

Jet instantly went rigid, three units? Could it be?

"Looks like they're trying to sneak by our scanners. Alert the ring and activate all cannons."

"Aye sir….there's something else too."

"What?"

"It appears one of the units has already entered the ring."

"What?"

"Just before we caught them on scanners we registered a massive energy burst and then lost reading from section beta 12 on the ring. It appears the outer armour has been breached and an unidentified object is moving into the ring."

"Damn…alert all troops. I want that unit stopped now. I'm returning to the bridge to over see things."

"Yes sir."

The screen went blank and Chen looked back at the restrained pair.

"I'll just deal with this irritation and then I'll be back to finish what we started, don't go away."

He chuckled slightly and then left the room, the door slamming shut and locking as he left. Jet watched the door for a moment and then looked over at Alicia. The squirrel didn't look so lifeless now but was still shaking.

"They've come for us." she said slowly.

"Yeah, hang in there Alicia, this isn't over yet." replied Jet.

-----------------------------------------

Chen arrived on the bridge and looked around. The bridge was already busy and things seemed to be very alive.

"Report." he said quickly.

"Sir we have confirmed that one unit is inside the ring. We've got all available troops waiting to ambush the unit in the rings main cargo bay. The other two units have moved in. One is sticking close to the colony making targeting very difficult and the other seems to be heading this way."

"I see, is the ring ready to fire yet?"

"Yes sir, batteries are all online."

"And our cannons?"

"Charging now sir."

"Ok, use our target data and feed it to the ring computers, target the unit closest to the ring and open fire."

-----------------------------------------

Chalk was heading at full speed towards the connecting struts. Skimming the colony close, she hoped that she'd be a more awkward target than Sonic who was acting as a decoy. However as she got closer to her target it appeared she had been wrong. Red targets started appearing all over her HUD and moments later she found herself in the middle of a barrage of fire. She came to a sharp stop and flew straight up and away from the colony. As she did she aimed her cannon and fired, hitting one cannon in the process. She then had to dodge quickly as a second lot of fire came her way.

"I'm getting hammered! Sally!" she cried.

"Yes Chalk?" replied Sally.

"Anyway you could shut down these defence turrets from in there?"

"I'll try."

Sally turned her attention back to her situation. Flying down the tight colony corridors at full speed was not an easy task. So far nothing much had stopped her but she was on her guard. She hit a few commands on Nicole and spoke.

"Nicole scan for the biggest power source."

"Scanning Sally."

"We have to try and give those two a chance out there. How far to the connection struts?"

"Estimate one point five kilometres."

"Still a long way to go, what's the next room?"

"Plans indicate main cargo bay."

Even if Silvia's covert intelligence hadn't been completely up to scratch her operative had been able to get hold of a plan of the colony and Sally was now using this to navigate through the maze of corridors. Just then Nicole started bleeping.

"Warning, numerous human life signs detected in main cargo bay."

Sally flung her feet forwards, cutting her thrust as she did, and sunk to the floor. Turning her attention to Nicole she looked at the scan data. Sure enough a large number of signals were being displayed in the cargo bay ahead.

"Nicole is there anyway round?" she asked.

"Negative Sally."

"A bottle neck! They're waiting for me, hmm. Nicole fire up the EMP."

"EMP charging Sally."

"Good, we're going to hit them with everything we have. Activate the communication jammer and ready the energy shield. Cross shield systems with incoming threat tracker. I'm putting the shield in your command Nicole, deflect anything coming our way."

"Confirmed Sally….EMP ready Sally."

"Good here we go."

Sally turned back towards the way she was going and flew down the corridor, although a lot slower than before.

"Activate jammer and stand by EMP Nicole."

Sally edged closer and closer to the cargo bay entrance until she was standing in front of it.

"Jammer on Nicole."

A faint crackle filled the air as the communication jammer attached to the suit came to life. It would block her own communications with Sonic and Chalk but she needed to confuse her enemy right now. Reaching out she pushed the door release button next to her and stepped into the bay. The bay was massive and filled with more boxes and crates than Sally had seen in her life, most of them filled with construction parts for the rest of the colony. Sally continued to advance into the bay slowly looking from left to right and back again over and over. Her HUD was picking up every single bio sign and labelling it red as she continued. Then as she reached the middle of the bay a shout went up.

"Now!"

"Nicole EMP!" cried Sally in response.

A spherical field of energy appeared around the entire suit and then suddenly exploded. The crackling energy swept across the bay, blowing out lights and computers as it went. Sally wasted no time and raised her physical shield to defend against any incoming shots as she opened fire, spraying the bay in laser fire. A few shots came in from behind her but Nicole activated the energy shield causing them to bounce off to one side. Sally soon spun and laid down a spray of fire towards where the shots had come from and then spun back. Activating her thrusters she took off, shooting towards the other end of the bay hoping the confusion she had caused was enough to give her enough time to get out of the bay. Luckily it was and although a few stray shots did head her way she was able to dodge them easily. Sally didn't even bother to stop to open the door at the other end of the bay, she just raised her gun and blew it to pieces instead.

Flying down the new corridor she continued to follow Nicole's directions until she came to her target. Flying through and open door she flew into a giant room nearly as big as the cargo bay. In the centre of the room was a giant spherical looking machine that was lit up with various colours and creating a steady humming sound.

"That's it?" she asked.

"Confirmed Sally."

"The central power core, time to shut this place down."

She tapped a command and the missile pod on her left shoulder folded into position. She looked back at the generator and then turned her attention to the control panel again. She entered the target data and was about to press fire when she stopped, suddenly remembered something Silvia had said earlier.

"Nicole if this generator was to explode what would the damage be?"

"Estimate complete destruction of ring colony."

"That's not good….Silvia said no civilian casualties. Nicole would an EMP work?"

"Calculating Sally.

Sally began too look round the room. She was high up on a gantry and was for the moment alone but she had a feeling that would change any second.

"Hurry up Nicole." she urged.

"Chill Sal you're stressing me out." replied Nicole in an agitated tone.

"You'll be more than stressed out if…"

"Freeze!"

Sally spun towards the cry. The corridor she had come down was now blocked by a group of men wielding rifles. Sally's shield was in front of her in a second and her thrusters flared into life sending her shooting off the gantry. She flew backwards away from the gantry and over the huge reactor room. Glancing down she could see the floor a few hundred meters below her. She had to remember that in here they had artificial gravity and she couldn't turn her thrusters off without plummeting to the ground. As being spread across the floor was not her idea of fun, Sally decided to try and locate somewhere to land. She was however cut short as the men moved onto the gantry she had been on and started shooting in her direction. Nicole activated her energy shield that deflected a few shots and Sally's physical shield held back the rest. Even so she had to take her eye of her steering to do this and thus crashed straight into a large set of pipes running up to the ceiling. The jolt stunned her and she lost control of her thrusters. With nothing holding her up gravity took over and she dropped towards the steelwork below. Sally quickly shifted her attention to the controls and activated her thrusters moments before hitting the deck. She cut the thrust and landed with a thud on the ground. Looking around she noticed the astonished faces of the mechanics and plant operators around her. They weren't soldier's just ordinary men and women and Sally's sudden entrance surprised them.

"Calculation complete Sally. Affirmative on EMP." said Nicole.

"If you don't want to get hurt run." said Sally flatly.

The people around her looked at her, then at each other and finally fled screaming to their colleagues to run too. Sally looked up sharply, flinging her hair back as she did. Glancing up at the gantry far above her she smirked.

"Do it Nicole."

"EMP online."

A crackling sphere appeared around Sally and started to build in power. Sparks started to fly off in all directions, shorting out various pieces of equipment around Sally. Sally herself was looking around, the charge was much larger than any she had seen Nicole perform so far.

"Nicole how big is this charge?" she asked.

"Estimate charge of thirty thousand kilovolts Sally."

"What?! But that's into the overload region!"

"Affirmative Sally."

Sally looked around her sharply, a slight touch of fear on her face. The sphere around her was now so intense it was causing her own fur to stand on end. A high pitched whine filled the air and Sally shut her eyes and curled up slightly. Moments later a bang filled the air and the sphere expanded around her. Passing by all the equipment in the room it left a trail of sparks and fizzling in its wake. As the wave slowly faded out the machinery it had passed by exploded, sparks of red and orange flying into the air as things overloaded all round her. Sally wisely took off moments after the EMP went off and was now hovering above the mayhem below. Looking over towards the main reactor Sally could see it sparking also and as she continued to watch the top of the giant machine exploded. Seconds later the lights in the room went out and a deadly silence filled the air. Nicole activated a couple of lights around the suit so that Sally could see. She quickly checked the suits status and spoke.

"Nicole? Nicole you ok?" she asked.

"All systems running at 80% efficiency, EMP offline." informed Nicole.

"Well at least it did its job."

Just then Sally's radio gave a crackle.

"Thanks Sally, much appreciated." came Chalks' voice.

"No problem Chalk, how is it out there?" replied Sally.

"Not too bad now. We have the Phantom shooting at us but the ring is dead. You found those two kids yet?"

"Not yet Chalk, I'm still looking. Just keep them busy a little bit longer."

"Roger."

Sally cut the radio and looked back at her display.

"Let's get moving Nicole. We need to find the kids, have you detected their signals yet?"

"Negative Sally, they do not appear to be on the ring but…"

"Huh? What is it Nicole?"

"Scanners indicate Angel units four and five are on the ring."

"Alicia's and Jet's suits?! What are they doing on the ring?"

"Unknown Sally."

"Lock their positions. We'll need them to get those two away from here should we find them."

"Position locked Sally."

"Good, if they aren't here they must be on the Phantom…"

Sally quickly flicked on the radio again.

"Chalk? Chalk have you severed the joining struts yet?" she asked.

"Negative Sally, I was just about to." replied Chalk.

"Hold on Chalk, I'm going onboard the Phantom."

"What?!" came Sonic's voice, "Are you insane Sally?"

"They aren't here Sonic, they must be on the Phantom."

"Sally if you board that ship we can't destroy it." urged Sonic.

"I know Sonic but I have to find them." she replied.

"Alright." sighed Sonic, "Stay low huh."

"Will do Sonic. Chalk stand by, as soon as I get onboard the Phantom sever the connection."

"You got it Sally."

Sally cut the radio and glanced upwards. She took a firm grasp of the controls and turned her suit upwards, flying back towards the entrance she had come in through. The soldiers were still there and they opened fire as she approached but they couldn't do much in the dark. Letting off a few distraction shots, Sally flew straight past them and onwards into the ring. It didn't take her long to reach the joining struts and a swift laser blast turned the door into fragments. She quickly took flight along the connecting tunnel and blew apart the opposite door. Entering the Phantom she radioed Chalk.

"Ok I'm clear Chalk, do it."

"You got it Sally."

Sally only had to wait a few moments before the sound of the explosion ripped through the air. She felt the corridor jolt around her even though she was in the air as the ship port was flung outwards by the colony's spin.

"Nicole, are you picking them up?" she asked quickly.

"Scanning Sally."

Sally waited with baited breath, where they here? If they were, were they alive? Her answer came quickly.

"Confirmed Sally." said Nicole, "Reading bio signs for Alicia and Jet."

"Are hey alive?"

"Confirmed."

Sally nearly cried out with joy, tears quickly came to her eyes but she shook them off.

"Ok Nicole let's do this! Let's show them what they get when they mess with us."

-----------------------------------------

Warning sirens started to blare loudly as the entire ship gave a jolt. Chen was thrown from his feet and fell with a crash to the floor. Grabbing the edge of a console he pulled himself to his feet.

"Report!" he screamed.

"Sir the connection struts between the colony and the port have been severed. We are now free of the colony and….sir! We have an intruder onboard."

"Who?!"

"Registering one of those units sir…it's the same one that we detected in the ring colony. Moving across deck F…no, now it's on deck E! No deck D! Unit is moving directly upwards through the floor work, detecting heavy weapons fire."

"Get some men down there!"

"Sir the unit has stopped on C deck, moving towards the examination room."

"It's heading for the prisoners! Where are those other two units?"

"The other units are following just outside of weapons range."

"Keep an eye on them and shoot them down the moment they come into range. Start preparations to separate the ship from the port."

"Sir?"

"There's no point in this ship being tided up in this port if the thing isn't even attached to the colony. It's complete enough to survive on its own. Get two squads down to the examination rooms, I'm going down myself."

"Sir!"

-----------------------------------------

Sonic and Chalk followed along behind the Phantom as it moved further and further from the ring. Because of the ring's rotation the huge port was now spinning end over end slowly as it moved away from the planet behind them. Sonic was looking at the ship with a worried expression as they followed.

"I hope she's ok." he said.

"She'd call if she wasn't." replied Chalk, "Besides I've never known Sally to give up ever."

Sonic gave a glance at the rabbit to see that she was smiling. She gave him the thumbs up and grinned at him. Sonic couldn't help but grin too.

"Funny you know, I've known Sally since I was a kid and I'm still worried about her even when I know she'll be ok."

"That's what love is all about Sonic." replied Chalk, "If it wasn't there wouldn't be much point in it."

"Since when have you been having thoughts like that?"

"Since I started remembering things. Sally was wrong about the time frame, it might take years instead of weeks or months but there's one thing I do remember. A person's love for someone else is the strongest force in the universe, I learned that from my mother."

Sonic smiled.

"Darn right Chalk, darn right."

-----------------------------------------

A massive blast reduced a door to pieces moments before Sally passed through it. The men waiting behind it didn't stand a chance as the explosion sent them hurtling backwards, knocking them all unconscious. Sally passed by them and then came to a sharp stop. A metal double door sat in front of her.

"Here Nicole?" she asked.

"Yes Sally."

"Got it!"

Sally raised her weapon once more and held it steady. Charging a shot she let it fly at the door reducing it to a pile of smoking metal. Quickly she stepped through and froze, an old memory coming back to her. She shuddered and her fur stuck up in fright. Taking a step backwards she began to breathe quicker, her heart racing.

"No….no not again." she whispered quietly.

"Mother?"

Sally snapped out of her memories and looked towards the voice. What she saw made her freeze again. The eyes of her daughter starred back at her like huge saucers. For a moment neither of them spoke before a second voice split the air.

"Damn Sally! Hell am I glad to see you! Get me off this thing before I get turned into cat food!"

Sally snapped her head round and this time finally took note of the situation around her. Both Jet and Alicia were tied down to metal tables and it didn't look like they went voluntarily. Sally quickly jumped forwards coming to a stop next to the bound pair. Taking a firm grip of the belt around Jet's waist she gave it a tug and it came loose. She then quickly undid the straps round his wrists and spoke.

"You ok from there?"

"Fine Sally, thanks." replied Jet.

As Jet sat up to undo the restraints around his feet Sally turned to Alicia. She quickly pulled back the belt around her middle and undid her wrist straps before Alicia sat up quickly and flung herself at Sally. She hugged her tight and started to cry softly into her shoulder.

"There there Alicia, its ok, calm down." cooed Sally trying to calm her daughter.

"I was so scared mom. I thought…"

"Hush dear, you're safe now."

"No that's not exactly true." said a familiar voice.

Sally froze solid and squeezed Alicia even tighter. It couldn't be…not him. Slowly Sally turned to face the voice. In the doorway stood Chen Tanaka surrounded by at least twelve men. Each was armed with a rifle and each of them was aiming directly for her.

"Well well well, we meet again your highness. How nice of you to drop in but I'm afraid you won't be leaving how you planned." said Chen slowly.

Sally pulled Alicia even closer, almost cutting off her breathing, and turned into a defensive position over her.

"You can have me if my daughter and Jet and allowed to leave." she said.

Neither Jet nor Alicia made a sound. Alicia was too busy shaking in Sally's grip and Jet was looking out from behind Sally with a worried look on his face.

"I don't think so." replied Chen, "You're in no position to be making deals. Now power down that suit or we'll be forced to open fire."

"No Sally don't." said Jet quietly looking up at Sally.

Sally just smirked to herself and then looked sadly towards Chen.

"Slowly now." replied Chen.

As if to back up his statement all the men behind him aimed their rifles directly at Sally. Sally herself slowly moved her hand towards the controls. Flicking a switch the thrusters on the suit, before glowing slightly, faded and went out. On Sally's control console Nicole gave a single bleep.

"Good now the weapons." said Chen.

Sally moved to power down the rifle, the lights along its length going out. As this happened Nicole gave another bleep and a small charge bar started to glow on her display. Sally then went about shutting down the other systems one by one, communication jammer, energy shield, radio, each one making Nicole bleep and the bar to increase in size. Finally it turned green and Sally smiled, there was just one more system to shut down but she wasn't about to shut this one down. Slowly she looked up and faced Chen and smirked back at her.

"Ok move in and secure them men." ordered Chen.

"Before you do that can I say one thing?" interrupted Sally.

Chen put his arm up and the men around him stopped.

"It is the least I can do for you." he said with a small smile.

Sally put her arm out and pushed Jet, who was standing beside her, behind her. At the same time she released Alicia and pushed her behind her also, taking a few steps forwards as she did. Standing in front of the two children she pulled herself funny upright and smirked.

"Well?" insisted Chen eager to get on with it.

Sally just gave a small sharp laugh and flung her head back. She batted her eye lashes at him and replied.

"Being in this position kinda makes you feel all nostalgic doesn't it." she replied, "Kinda makes you want to say…theta 12."

"What?!" asked Chen.

"Theta 12 active Sally!" responded Nicole.

"Alicia get down!" cried Jet leaping at the squirrel and knocking her to the floor.

A split moment later a massive energy pulse erupted from the suit, knocking Chen and his men clean onto their backs and sending various items flying. Seconds later the room went black and was then filled with light as Nicole activated the suits lights. Jet slowly helped Alicia to her feet and then turned to Sally.

"How'd you do that?" he asked, "I thought you shut the suit down."

"Well he said shut the suit down, he didn't mention Nicole. I used the EMP a little while back and it wasn't fully charged but Chen sealed his own fate when he asked me to shut down."

"How so?"

"Nicole needed more power to charge the EMP and as I shut down each of the suits systems the energy from the reactor only had one place left to go…into Nicole. There was a chance it would fry her circuits but it didn't and the extra power allowed Nicole to charge the EMP in a much quicker time."

"Impressive."

Alicia pushed past Jet and flung herself at Sally.

"You were amazing mom!" she cried happily nearly crying.

"Thank you honey but let's save that for later. Right now we have to get off this ship." replied Sally.

Alicia pulled back slightly and looked up at Sally. She nodded once and let go of her. Sally looked at Jet, who nodded also.

"Ok then let's get moving, grab hold of the suits arms." said Sally.

Jet and Alicia did so, Jet grabbing the gun arm and Alicia the shield arm. Sally's hand flew across the control pad, activating the suits systems again one by one. As the thrusters came to life she turned and took off slightly. Because of the added weight the suit was not as manoeuvrable or as quick as it should be but it managed to lift the three from the ground.

"Now you two are gonna have to hold on tight, things could be tricky."

Jet and Alicia nodded and Sally pushed the throttle open. The suit flew from the room and Sally turned heading back along the route she had come in through.

-----------------------------------------

Chen groaned slowly and opened his eyes a crack. He couldn't see anything, it was all black, but he could hear the quiet groans of his men around him.

"Damn them….she did it again!" he cursed under his breath.

"Attention! Attention! Emergency backup power generator now activated. System reboot in five, four, three, two, one….system online."

As the computer finished its speech the lights in the room flickered and fizzled giving a few brief bursts of light before they finally lit up. Moments later a steady hum filled the air as all around the room various ships systems came back online. Chen propped himself up slightly and looked around the room.

"Good thing we installed a dormant secondary backup system." he growled pulling himself to his feet and leaning against a wall.

A monitor next to him blinked, crackled and slowly shimmered into life. The picture was fuzzy but just about visible.

"Sir….fzzt….e you alright?" came a crackled question.

"Yes I'm fine but the prisoners are gone. What's going on?"

"Unit detected...fzzt…F deck…fzzt…heading…fzzt...port hatch."

"Stop it now! I want every hatch off this ship sealed! Lower the bulkheads now! What about the other units?"

"Still following….fzzt…orders?"

Chen thought for a moment and then nodded to himself.

"Prepare ship for disengagement. Bring the ion cannons online and prep for full battle mode."

"Confirmed."

The screen fizzled out and Chen looked back around the room. He gave an angry growl and then left the room, pushing past his men as they were standing up.

-----------------------------------------

Sally came to an abrupt stop as a large metal door slammed down in front of her.

"Nuts!" she cried flying back a few feet.

"They're definitely onto us." said Jet.

"Well no freaking way Mr Intelligent." replied Alicia.

"Now kids don't argue, I've got it covered, both of you let go."

Alicia and Jet quickly let go of the suit and stepped backwards. Sally swung the right leg of the suit back and brought her rifle up to bare on the door. It hummed sharply and erupted, the shot striking the door with a massive flash. As the glare faded they all stood completely shocked, the door wasn't even dented.

"Not good." said Alicia.

"Well no la di da!" replied Jet.

Sally just frowned at them, and then looked back at the door. This was definitely not good, how were they going to get through that door? Bingo! Sally ran her hand along the control pad causing several lights to blink. Until now she had not used her rocket pod much and was now glad of it. The pod had absorbed enough matter to form three rockets in quick succession and if that didn't brake the door she didn't know what would. As the pod folded down over her left shoulder she spoke to the children.

"Better take cover kids, this could get messy."

Jet and Alicia both nodded and took cover behind round a corridor intersection. Sally watched them for a moment and then turned to face the door. No-one had arrived yet but she wasn't about to wait around for them. Her Eye now had a target lock on the door and Sally braced herself for the oncoming explosion.

"Fire in the hold!" she cried.

A flare of light erupted from the back of Sally's missile pod as the missile shot from it. Striking the door in a massive explosion it was not a second before the second missile was created inside the pod and was fired. This was quickly followed by a third and followed the second one to its target. The explosion virtually knocked Sally over but the missiles did their job, smashing the entire door to pieces. As fragments fell all around her and the smoke began to clear, Jet and Alicia stepped out of their hiding place and walked forward.

"Boy mom, you certainly know how to redecorate." stated Alicia.

"Shouldn't we save the jokes for later?" said Jet.

"You're right Jet, let's get moving, the air lock isn't far." replied Sally.

Sally extended her suit arms and Jet and Alicia once again took a hold. The suit took off, heading through the broken shutter and along the next corridor. Quite suddenly Sally came to an abrupt stop and landed.

"We're here."

Jet and Alicia let go and looked around. In front of them was a large circular door with a small glass window in it. Jet suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, he knew what this type of door was and he had bad memories of it.

"An…air lock?" he asked slowly.

"Yes Jet, it's the only way off this ship." replied Sally.

"What about the connection tunnel?"

"Once I was aboard Chalk severed it. This is the only way now."

"But…but our suits! What about those?"

"They're on the ring Jet. You'll have to hang onto my suit."

Jet had now backed up and was pressed against the back wall. His eyes were fixed on the air lock and shook with fear.

"No…no I can't. I can't go in there." he said slowly.

"Jet either we go in there or we wait around here to be captured! What do you prefer?" urged Sally.

"I don't care…I can't go in there. I just can't." whimpered Jet, "I don't want to be alone in the dark again."

"But Jet…you won't." said Alicia calmly stepping up and taking a hold of one of his hands, "You'll never be alone again."

Sally looked puzzlingly at Alicia, what did she mean? What had been going on in her absence? She looked back at the pair to find them looking into each others eyes. Neither was moving and they hardly looked like they were breathing. It was almost as if time was standing still for them. Sally continued to watch and slowly Jet's fur started to lie flat again. His shaking eyes stopped shaking and his breathing returned to a fairly normal rate. Alicia still had a firm grip of his hand and gradually she coaxed Jet towards the air lock.

"We're ready." she said.

Sally just nodded and pressed a few controls by the airlock. The outer door gave a hiss and swung open, revealing the chamber inside. Alicia could feel Jet's hand tighten around her own but she squeezed back reassuringly. Slowly the pair stepped into the airlock followed by Sally who quickly activated her suits atmospheric bubble. As she did the inner hatch slammed close and Jet physically jumped. He turned quickly and threw his arms around Alicia, pulling her into a tight embrace. Alicia could feel the cat shaking as she hugged him.

"I don't wanna die Alicia." he said starting to sniff.

"Jet it's ok, you won't. Sally's here and she won't allow it." she replied.

Alicia pulled herself closer and whispered in his ear softly.

"I won't allow it."

Alicia felt Jet's hold on her tighten slightly at her words.

"Thank you Alicia." he replied softly his tail flicking behind her and wrapping round Alicia's tail.

"Ok you two ready?" said Sally breaking the moment, "Come here."

Alicia and Jet looked round at Sally. She had her arms spread wide as if she was going to hug them, in fact this was exactly right. As they stepped towards her she stepped towards them and flung her arms round them, pulling them both close to her.

"Let's go." she said.

Seconds later three red lights lit up on the display beside her and the outer door slid open. Space flooded in and Jet shut his eyes tight, holding his breath as she did.

"Angel two launching!" cried Sally engaging her thrusters.

The suit's motors flared and sent the three hurtling from the air lock like a giant flare. As they left the radio crackled into life.

"Sally?!" cried Sonic panicked voice.

"I'm here Sonic and feeling fine." replied Sally.

"What about the kids?"

"I'm here too dad, Jet too." replied Alicia.

"Thank god, I'm so glad you three are ok."

"What do we do next?" asked Chalk.

"Simple we finish what we came here to do." replied Sally.

"Destroy the Phantom? That might be easier said than done." replied Sonic.

"Yes a lot easier said than done." said a voice.

"Huh?!" cried Chalk.

"Who's that?" asked Sonic.

"Chen!" growled Sally.

"The ever observant queen strikes home again." replied Chen, "You're comm channel was not difficult to hack, you ought to get a better radio."

"Chen? Wasn't he the guy…" started Sonic before fading out.

"Yes Sonic he was." replied Sally.

"Correct, you escaped me that time and have done the same again this time but I'm afraid you're luck has run out. Behold the full power of the Phantom 2."

The comm went quiet and everyone waited for a moment. Slowly they all looked back towards the Phantom and watched. The huge clamps holding the Phantom inside the port were slowly disengaging from the ship. As the last of the clamps broke free of the hull the entire port gave a shudder and one side of it broke apart throwing fragments off into space. The other side of the port slowly fell away as several thrusters on the side of the Phantom ignited and pushed it away. The full form of the Phantom came into view. It was long and slender, pointed at the front and blocky towards the front. The ship basically looked like a giant cone in its shape but as they continued to watch several long web like struts extended from the side of the ship forming a giant set of sails on both side of the ship. As they continued to watch the front of the ship opened up to reveal two very large cannons. The sails started to glow a dull green colour as sparks started to fly around the tips of the guns.

"This is not good!" said Chalk.

"Everyone break formation and evade. Sally get those two out of here! You can't do anything with them in your arms." ordered Sonic.

"Got it Sonic." replied Sally.

Sally turned her suit towards the ring and started to head towards it. If she could get the kids back there she could get their suits back and then they'd fair up better. Sonic and Chalk immediately split and headed in opposite directions firing everything they had at the Phantom. The huge ship replied by firing everything it had at them as it turned to follow Sally. The huge cannons on the front of the ship started to glow brighter and brighter, the charge building steadily on the tip.

"Sally look out!" cried Sonic into the radio.

Sally looked over her shoulder just in time to see the ship fire. A twin beam of energy flew across the darkness towards her making her bank heavily. She evaded the shots but the immense amount of energy hurtling past her caused the suits power source to over load. With a bang her rifle exploded sending her spinning off to one side. At the same time the engines in her boots spluttered and cut out. The combined effect of this sent her spinning off to one side and threw Jet and Alicia from her grip. The pair, still holding onto each other, flew from the protective bubble and into space. Jet immediately tried to cry out, releasing what air he had and causing him to panic even more. He tried to cry to Alicia for help but she was already there. She pulled him closer and planted her lips squarely on his. Forcing his mouth open slightly she exhaled, sharing her air with him. Jet in turn pulled her closer and tightened his grip on her.

_"I'll never let go Jet." _thought Alicia.

_"Thank you Alicia, for everything."_ thought Jet.

Sally meanwhile was going ecstatic. Without her boot thrusters her suit was responding sluggishly and she couldn't really move in a chosen direction, she had no control at all.

"Alicia! Jet!" she screamed tears quickly coming to her eyes.

"Sally! Are you alright?!" cried Sonic.

"Yes but…"

"Oh god!" interrupted Chalk.

All three of them had now spotted Jet and Alicia, wrapped in each others arms, floating off into space. Sonic immediately opened his thrusters and shot after them but he was a long way off and constant shots from the Phantom were stopping his progress. Sally was now trying desperately to regain control of her suit.

"Come on you piece of shit! Dammit work! Nicole? Nicole can you hear me?!" she cried.

The computer just made a few random bleeps in response. The energy of the beams had fired many of Nicole's systems rendering her out of it. Glancing back she caught sight of the Phantom turning in her direction. The two large cannons were once again glowing and she quickly turned back to her controls trying to get them to do something. Sonic couldn't believe what was happening. To come this far and fall at the last hurdle, no it couldn't be, there had to be a way. Just then he remembered something he had discussed with Silvia what seemed like a lifetime ago. A certain button on his control pad marked "WC".

"The Wing Cannon!" he said slowly to himself.

"What Sonic?" said Chalk, "You got an idea or something?"

"Might do Chalk, stand by, I need to try this out."

Sonic looked back towards the console, his finger hovering over the button. Silvia's words came back to him, _"I haven't told you about it because I don't want you to use it, it's too risky. As you asked about it I told you about it, but promise me you won't use it. For all we know it could blow up in your face."_

"Blow up in my face…but it's our only shot. CHALK!"

"Here Sonic." replied Chalk.

"Get out of here, go! Help Sally and the children."

"What?!" cried Chalk.

"Sonic?" came Sally's voice.

"I mean it! Go now!"

"Sonic…"

"Dammit! NOW! I don't want to tell you again! Go now!"

Sonic's voice was shaky and nervous but full of authority. Sally and Chalk both knew what Sonic was saying. It would only end one of two ways for him, total victory or total defeat. With a heavy heart and enough hesitation to fill a space port Chalk turned and engaged her thrusters, flying off towards Jet and Alicia.

"Good luck Sonic." said Sally softly before Sonic switched his radio off.

Turning to face the oncoming ship he sneered.

"Ok you human scum this is endgame! You and me! Let's see how good Silvia's Wing Cannon really is."

With that he pushed the small red button on his console. With a shake the suit around him began to move. The wings both shook and moved upwards, the left one spinning round so that it was facing in front of him. A crack appeared along the end of the wing and the sides split off revealing the inner structure of the wing. A long cylindrical cannon was easily visible. A number of small antenna like devices extended from the barrel and the entire thing began to hum softly. At the same time the right hand wing swung up behind him, splitting into three slightly as it locked into position in a fan like shape behind him. Sonic was quite amazed by the transformation but didn't have time to ogle at it. The Phantom was still firing in his direction and without the wings to help him he had to rely on his boots. As the shots came in he slowly dodged them but with the oncoming barrage he had no hope of aiming or firing.

"Dammit! I need a distraction! Anything!" he cursed.

"You call Sonic?" said a voice.

"Huh? Who's that?"

Sonic recognised the voice but he couldn't place his finger on it.

"Who's this? You don't recognise a member of your group when they show up?"

This time Sonic recognised it, he couldn't believe it for a moment.

"Andrew?!" he cried.

"The one and only!" replied the human, "Heads up Sonic we have incoming."

Sonic's HUD display blinked at him causing him to turn his head. A fine white streak of light was visible to one side as something dropped out of star drive. His Eye quickly zoomed in on the target and labelled it in green with its own ID tag. Sonic was amazed.

"Angel six!" he said.

"Not only me Sonic, the Calvary is here." replied Andrew.

Just then three more white streaks appeared in the blackness but Sonic didn't need his Eye to zoom in on them, the objects were clearly visible without the need for that. Three large Coalition frigates slowed and pulled alongside the Phantom. The barrage of fire suddenly stopped as if the ship was trying to figure out what was going on. Seconds later the frigates opened fire, multiple energy shells striking the side of the Phantom creating massive explosions along its length. The Phantom soon opened fire again itself, spraying the frigates with fire, but for now seemed to have forgotten about Sonic.

"If you're going to do something you better do it now!" cried Andrew.

Just then a huge explosion ripped across the hull of one of the three frigates. Armour plating went everywhere and the ship veered of steeply to one side, obviously out of control. They had come to help him even though they knew they couldn't stop the Phantom. Sonic quickly swung the large cannon around and pointed it at the Phantom.

"Ok let's see here, Wing Cannon is online and…ah ha! Firing control right here….the charge is….at zero. Dammit, how do I charge this thing?!"

Sonic looked all over the console but saw nothing. Out of desperation he pressed the red button again. Almost instantly a targeting cursor lit up on his HUD and a charge bar flashed up on the console. Glancing over his shoulder he saw the wing's behind him were now starting to glow. The charge soon passed fifty percent and the fan behind him gave a spark moments before a huge circular disk of energy flared behind him. As the charge grew so did the brightness of the disk until finally it reached one hundred percent. Sonic glanced back at the Phantom as a small targeting symbol turned red over it.

"Ok then, let's see how tough you really are!"

With that he pressed the trigger. The disc behind him gave a flash and suddenly sunk into the fan and then all went silent. A point of light appeared at the tip of the cannon and suddenly the whole thing came alive. Lights flashed all along its length and seconds later it fired, a huge swirling beam of energy heading straight for the Phantom. For a split second Sonic could imagine the look on Chen's face as he saw the beam approaching. He had never seen the man but had a good enough description from Sally to piece together a picture. What would he be thinking? What would his reaction be? Sonic was snapped out of his thoughts as the cannon burst struck the front of the Phantom. For a moment it appeared not to have done anything, the beam had stopped upon impact, but it soon became clear otherwise. A sudden bright explosion erupted from the impact point and a second large explosion sprung from the hull further along the ship as the beam left it. The energy had ripped straight through the Phantom's hull as if it was nothing and now other smaller explosions were erupting from the hull. The frigates continued their barrage of fire although it looked like they were now trying to gain some distance. Shots impacted the ship from all sides, tearing into its armour and causing even more explosions along its length.

-----------------------------------------

"Report!" cried Chen.

"Sir we've got an unstable reading in the forward weapons array."

"What?!"

"That cannon blast sir, it's disrupted the charging sequence for the main cannons."

"Disrupted the….oh god! Eject the reactor core!"

"Ejection subsystems are gone sir. We've suffered heavy damage on all sides, ships systems are failing all over. Reactor temperature at seventeen thousand Kelvin."

"It's going to breach! Everyone abandon ship!"

"Sir it's too late!"

Chen looked out of the main viewing window. A faint prick of light was now visible on the nose of the ship. As he watched the prick became a burst and the burst an explosion.

"Seems we took our furry opponents too lightly again…" he murmured to himself.

-----------------------------------------

Sonic had to shield his eyes as in a massive flash of light the Phantom vanished in a huge explosion. Debris was thrown off everywhere, some of it narrowly missing him. One of the frigates was caught in the blast but was not destroyed although it would need some serious work doing on it afterwards. Looking back Sonic watched the pieces of the Phantom float outwards slowly as the explosion died.

"Woah!" he exclaimed slowly.

"That is one mighty fine cannon Sonic." replied Andrew.

"Thanks but what are you doing here?"

"There'll be time for that later, right now I think you have another matter to deal with."

"The kids!"

-----------------------------------------

Chalk reached the pair mere seconds after Sonic had yelled at them. Scooping them up she tried to shake them awake but to no avail. Sally had regained some control now and had flown up beside her.

"Chalk!" she cried, "Are they…?"

"Don't know Sally, they need air." replied Chalk.

"The ring! Get to the ring."

"But that's enemy territory."

"I don't care! Go Chalk, get them to a safe place! Now!"

Chalk could tell how upset Sally was, it was plain in her voice without having to look at her expression. Chalk didn't argue and simply turned and flew towards the ring. Sally followed on close behind repeating the same word over and over, no. As they flew they felt the light from the explosion behind them. Chalk glanced over her shoulder as they flew.

"Mission accomplished Sally." she said slowly.

"No Chalk, not mission accomplished. It'll never be mission accomplished until those two are safe again. Can't these things go any faster?!" replied Sally tears now forming in her eyes.

Chalk didn't reply, she didn't know how to answer Sally right now. She looked down at the two children in her arms. Their grip had relaxed now and a pale whitey blue colour filled their faces. It didn't look like Jet and Alicia at all, it looked more like a set of stuffed dummies, lifeless and limp in her arms. She began to wonder if they would be too late, would they make it in time?

"Come on, come on." she started to chant to herself as they drew nearer.

The ring was still offline thanks to Sally's EMP and the huge hanger was clearly visible. The space doors were open, leaving only the force field to keep space out. Chalk wasted no time and headed straight for the opening. Flying in like a madman she came to a sharp stop and fell to her knees, dropping Jet and Alicia to the ground as she did. Sally wasn't too far behind, landing in a crumpled pile on the hanger floor. She quickly disengaged herself from the suit and jumped to the floor, collapsing to her knees and crawling over to where Jet and Alicia were. She took a hold of both of them and shook them sharply.

"Come on you two! Come on don't give up now! Please!" she cried.

She bent double over Alicia and planted her lips squarely on her daughters. Exhaling sharply she pulled back and looked at her. There was no response from the squirrel, her eyes were distant and slightly frozen from the cold and her face had gone a light blue colour like a frozen lake. Sally squeezed her eyes tight, forcing her tears away, and shook her daughter once more.

"Alicia no…" she whimpered, "Don't leave…please."

"Sally, Jet!" cried Chalk behind her.

Sally had almost forgotten about the cat, her grief for her daughter had taken over her mind. She quickly spun round and shook Jet, trying to stir him, but like Alicia he looked blue and lifeless. Sally couldn't believe it, after all she had done and gone threw to fail now.

"No, dammit no! Don't you even think about it!" she screamed.

Raising her hand she slapped Alicia around the cheek hard. The strike left a perfect imprint of her hand in red but slowly the blue colour began to return. Sally growled and shook Alicia again. Leaning over she began to breathe into her again combining it with heart pumps as she went.

"Come on Alicia! Come on! I'm not giving up on you so don't you dare give up on me. Come on!"

"Ok don't move!"

Sally looked up slowly to see a group of soldiers standing around her. They were all pointing their weapons directly at her and a few other had Chalk covered also. Sally felt her anger starting to boil.

"Are you blind?!" she screamed tears now streaming from her eyes, "Shut up and leave us alone dammit!"

"Not a chance, now on your feet."

Sally slowly stood, her entire coat bristling like it was electrified. She took a step forwards and then sprung at the human soldier, knocking him cleanly to the ground with a powerful punch to the face. Sally made no move to back down as she stood over the fallen human. All the other soldiers were now watching with interest and were making no move to interfere.

"Don't you have one feeling in your entire body?!" screamed Sally, "My daughter and her friend are…no! No they're not dead! Never!"

Sally turned quickly and fell to her knees next to Alicia again. She pounded on her chest a few times and then resumed her CPR.

"Come on girl, come on." she said as she resumed her chanting.

The soldier slowly started to pick himself up, rubbing his bruised chin.

"Damn furries! I said hands up." he said.

"Somehow I think you'll be the one putting your hands up." said a new voice.

Sally and Chalk immediately glanced round and gasped.

"Andrew?!" they cried completely astonished.

They watched as an objects curved into view and then headed straight for the hanger. With a thud it slowed and came to rest on the deck plating. Sally and Chalk continued to look astounded at the sight. It was Andrew, and not only that but he was piloting an Angel suit! The suits looked just like theirs but its weapons consisted of four large tubular pods mounted one above and below of each arm. Out of each pod stuck two large guns which were now being aimed at the soldiers.

"Hand up everyone." he said slowly.

"Ha! You think one of you can take us all?" retorted the soldier.

"No but maybe two can." said Sonic's voice as his suit landed with a thud next to Andrew's.

Sonic's suit looked like it had seen better days. It was charred black in various places and the left wing looked like it had been torn apart but amazing the thrusters still appeared to be working. Sonic soon had his own beam rifles trained on the soldiers and, seeing the possibility of defeat, they decided to back down and put their weapons on the ground.

"I'll leave the covering to you and Chalk Andrew." said Sonic.

"Got it." replied Andrew not taking his eyes off the soldiers for a moment.

Chalk stepped up beside him, her particle cannon now fully active and humming as if to make a point, as Sonic disengaged from his own suit and ran to Sally's side.

"Sally how are…oh god!" he said.

"Sonic!"

Sally stood up and flung her arms around Sonic, bursting into floods of tears as she did.

"Sonic they're…they're….and it's all my fault! I let go of them." she cried.

"Sally it's not you're fault, and if I can help it I'm not going to let them die!" replied Sonic breaking away from Sally.

He got to his knees next to Jet and started to rub him all over, trying to get the circulation back. Checking his pulse he found a very weak one after a good few seconds of searching.

"He's alive Sally! Dammit Jet's alive!" he cried almost going ecstatic.

"What?! Then maybe…"

Sally crumpled next to Alicia and scrambled to find her pulse. In all this time she hadn't checked for her pulse, how could she forget such a simple thing? She checked a few places before she finally found a faint thumping feeling. Her eyes went wide as if she had just been given the best thing in the world, in a way she had her daughter was still alive.

"Alicia too Sonic! She's still with us!" cried Sally more tears flowing down her face.

"Get to it Sally." replied Sonic as he started CPR on Jet.

Sally didn't need to be told again and renewed her earlier activities with new found strength. Slowly over the next few minutes she began to notice a slight change in colour of Alicia's face. The blue colour was slowly fading and going a white colour. Sally's breathing was now coming in short sharp gasp as she continued and much the same was happening to Sonic. He didn't really know Jet as well as he would like too, granted he wasn't part of the family but then the group on Little Planet was like a family anyway, and he sure as hell wasn't going to let the kid die. Not here in this situation. Sonic now wished he had taken his cape with him, he could have used it to warm Jet up but as he hadn't he didn't want to worry about it and continued to rub Jet with his hands. The cat was now starting to regain a bit of colour in his cheeks but Sonic was getting tired. He had no idea how much longer he'd have to do this but he wasn't going to stop until he collapsed. He leaned over to give Jet a few breathes and then suddenly stopped. He could feel a small rustle of air brushing against his cheek and as he leaned closer to Jet he found it was coming from him. Sonic almost cried out in joy, Jet was breathing again all be it very faintly. He sat up and looked at Sally.

"Sally?" he asked.

Sally looked back at him, her face still full of fear and panic.

"I think she's breathing Sonic but I'm not too sure." she replied going back to her work.

Sonic looked over at Andrew and Jet and shouted.

"Dammit where are those transports? We need an evac now!"


	6. Epilogue

Epilogue

Sonic sat side by side with Sally beside Alicia's bed. It was now two days since the events at Jupiter and things had not changed that much. Not long after Sonic had asked for a transport one had arrived from the frigates parked outside. Once they had boarded the transport had left and docked with the frigate before the frigate had made for the Saratoga at best speed. The other two frigates had remained behind to recover the two Angel suits and to clean up before leaving themselves.

Meanwhile Jet and Alicia had been taken to the Saratoga's medical bay and had been immediately rushed into intensive care. Sonic and Sally had sat for many hours before news had finally come to them. Both of the children were in a bad way. The vacuum and cold of space had given their systems such a shock that if they had been out in it a moment longer they would certainly have died. Jet had been slightly luckier than Alicia but he was still in a bad way. He was slightly conscious now but no where near awake. His pulse and breathing were stable although very low. Alicia was in a critical condition. Her pulse was erratic and she had to be hooked up to a ventilator so that she could breathe. Sonic and Sally had also heard the doctors speaking of possible brain damage too which had sent Sally into floods of tears.

Chalk had retired to her room for the most part. She had been limping when she came in and had been suffering from a few electric shocks due to her being merged with her suit. Andrew hadn't been seen either since they returned.

Presently Sally lent forwards and ran her hand through Alicia's hair. As Sonic looked at her he could see the pain she was in. Her face was stained with tears and looked pale. Sonic couldn't deny that he wasn't feeling the same because he was. He never really showed his emotions much and tended to cover them up at times but this was too much for even him to contain. For the last two days he had been reliving every moment he had ever spent with his daughter over the last sixteen years of her life. All of those moments started to come back to him now as he sat watching her.

"Hey Sal, remember Alicia's fourth birthday?" he asked slowly, "You invited nearly the whole cities child population."

Sally gave a small gulping laugh and sniffed.

"Yes, you kept complaining about the noise." she replied.

"Looking back it wasn't that loud, the hum of this ship is more annoying."

"Alicia never did get used to that hum. I kept hearing her tossing and turning in bed, she likes quiet places."

"Yeah."

"Sonic? She'll be alright won't she? Won't she?"

"I don't know Sally. I hope so, god I hope so."

"Me too Sonic."

Sally leaned back from Alicia and turned to hug Sonic. The pair fell into each others arms as Sally began to sob, even Sonic was now struggling to hold back his tears.

"Please let her be alright." he said slowly.

-----------------------------------------

Chalk walked along one of the ships many passages at a slow pace. He mind wasn't really on the moment but stuck in the past. She was comparing the different reaction of the people around her. Most of the crew had been ecstatic about the Phantom 2's destruction. There were still parties going on now two days after it and wherever she went she found someone asking her to retell her story. She had now taken to spending most of her time either locked in her room or in some isolated spot. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell people her story or celebrate their victory but after recent events she didn't want to celebrate. What was there to celebrate? Jet and Alicia were nearly comatose and they all had their own feeling to deal with.

Presently Chalk stopped at a corridor intersection and leaned against the wall. Silvia and the captain had had completely different reactions to the news. The captain had immediately started planning their next move, _"This is only one step along the road we have to tread."_ he had said. Chalk couldn't help but laugh slightly, typical military response. Silvia seemed to be the only person onboard who was genuinely concerned about Jet and Alicia. She had made sure the pair were stable at least before returning to her duties and was constantly checking back on their condition. Chalk had to admit, she liked Silvia. As humans went she was very decent and kind, so much unlike Robotnik. Chalk gave a sigh and moved on down the corridor heading towards the ship's canteen. She just hoped it was empty, she wasn't in the mood for talking much.

As she entered the canteen she quickly scanned the room. The lights were all on but the canteen seemed to be closed for the most part. Various trays of cold food had been left out should anyone want to eat though. Chalk then noticed someone sitting to one side of the canteen bent over a tray of food. Even though his hand partially obstructed his face Chalk could tell it was Andrew. She hadn't seen him much recently and had wanted to ask him some question, now seemed as good a time as any. She hurried over to the counter and looked over what was on offer. She finally decided on a bread roll and some cold meat stew and walked over to where Andrew was sitting. As she approached he made no visible sign of greeting nor any sign of leaving either. She sat down just across from him and placed her food down. She dipped her bread in her stew and took a bite. Seconds later she cringed and threw the bread roll down along the table.

"Yack! What they make this out of?" she said pushing her bowl away.

"No idea but I swear it comes from somewhere dark." replied Andrew.

Chalk gave a short laugh and looked at Andrew. The human was leaning on his hand staring into his plate with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Penny for your thoughts." said Chalk politely.

Andrew looked up and shrugged.

"Oh it's nothing, just thinking." he replied.

"About what?"

"Well what I've chosen to do. Thinking everything over you know."

"Ah! Mid life crisis." snickered Chalk.

"Nothing of the sort, I'm not that old yet. No I was thinking about Earth and what really is going on."

Chalk didn't reply, instead she leaned back in her chair and allowed Andrew to continue.

"I've been in the military since I was a teenager, joined when I was eighteen." said Andrew leaning back also, "Oh it was good back then, saying that I was just another private in the ranks. That was a few years after Silvia supposedly died. My parents had always been very much behind Miss Higara, especially my father. Many thought it odd that a top level military officer would back a president devoted to peace and low military spending. Well anyway there I was following in his footsteps. By this point I think just about everyone in the military knew about "Sarah Mathews" appearance, can't say I wasn't interested by the fact of life on another planet. That's why I volunteered for the Mobian mission when it came about. Never thought I'd end up joining forces with them though."

"So why did you join with us?" asked Chalk, "I mean you could have made yourself a prisoner or left once Basanda had been defeated. We weren't exactly in a position to stop you."

"I know and I did think about it but…something made me stay. I didn't really know the full story of events on Mobius, I wasn't exactly that high of a rank, but I felt as if something underhand was going down. It sounds egotistical but my record was spotless, I've never put a foot wrong, and I end up supervising some lousy dig site and nearly getting killed. Some reward for a good officer eh. Plus I've always felt a bit odd about Miss Higara's alleged death. My father was always very vocal on the subject and wore it was a conspiracy so I've never full believed the reports. I see I was right to do so now and after hearing what Silvia had to say now I know I was right. The Earth Alliance has gone crazy, President Kidderminster is…well he's gone mad! I know we should be cautious when we encounter something new, especially a new planet and life forms, but to attack them without provocation? Where's the sense in that?"

Chalk pushed a hand through her hair and smiled.

"You don't know how refreshing it is to here a human say that. But how did you get Silvia to let you use Angel six? More to the point how were you able to get the hang of it so quickly?" she asked.

"Ah well I basically told her what I told you just now." he replied.

"Somehow I doubt that would have been enough, she's had you under lock and key since you got here."

"True and when I said that she countered with how was she to know that I would defect back to the Alliance as soon as I got out."

"Good point."

"Very and I had a hell of a time explaining my way out of it. I said that if I was planning to defect and give the Alliance Angel six then I'd be a bit dumb as they had already captured Angel four and five and wouldn't need a third unit. I then proceeded to tell her all about my father and the doubt I held over her death. She was flattered but that was about it."

"So?"

"Well I didn't really have much more to say. It wasn't until she heard you were going back in to try and save those two kids that she finally agreed to let me go. Saying that she did send those three frigates with me, guess she was making sure I kept to my word."

"A wise precaution really when you think about it."

"I guess so and we did end up needing those frigates in the end. Saying that it was Sonic's cannon blast that did the trick in the end. I'm just wondering if I did the right thing."

"You mean leaving the Alliance and joining Silvia and us?"

Andrew gave a small nod.

"Well I think you did." replied Chalk sitting up, "Look at it this way, were you comfortable in the Alliance?"

"There were times."

"Right, and do you feel comfortable here?"

"Um…so long as everyone stops looking at me like their plotting to stab me."

Chalk chuckled and covered her mouth.

"Well there you go. Here you know what the people around you are thinking so you can protect yourself and act accordingly. Back in the Alliance did you always know what people were thinking? Or what they were planning? If you weren't fighting for them as they wanted you to did you know what would happen to you?"

Andrew folded his arms in front of him and looked down, thinking it over. Finally he looked up and flung his arms to the side.

"I guess you're right Chalk. I've always been interested in how Silvia did things in her time. Guess I'll actually get a chance to see first hand now."

"Always looking on the bright side eh. Now…how did you get the hang of that suit so quickly?"

"Simple, video games."

"Pardon?"

"When I was younger we lived in one of the smaller cities. There wasn't all that much to do and hardly any other kids lived in my area. Both my parents were always busy so they bought me loads of stuff to occupy me. Video games were one of those things, hell I even won a tournament on one game. I played a lot of simulators and combat games, probably why I went into the military, so I got used to the controls pretty quickly. Plus I've never piloted another ship of any kind so there was nothing to confuse me."

"Sneaky, bet Silvia was impressed."

"You could say that."

"It was certainly a surprise when you came to our rescue, but a nice surprise."

"Glad I could be of service, I just hope we didn't arrive too late."

"Don't blame yourself for that Andrew, without your help we'd all be dead now for sure. The kids will be fine."

"I'll have to take your word on that. Question now is what do we do now?"

"The infamous question eh? Well there's still us two isn't there. I can't do much else but fight in my current situation."

"Same as me really, I doubt Silvia will give me anything else to do until she knows she can trust me."

"Right well if you need any help with your suit just let me know, I know a fair bit about them now."

Chalk pushed her chair back slowly and made a move to stand up.

"But right now I'm going to go and see if I can find something a little more edible and then check on the kids." she said.

"Think I'll join you, nothing else to do on this ship." replied Andrew.

Chalk slowly stood followed by Andrew. As Chalk stood her suit's wings bumped into the table behind her causing her to stumble.

"Must be irritating having that thing on all the time." he said.

"Yes it can be but without it I would still be without my memories." she replied.

"How much can you remember now?"

"Not a great deal so far but it is coming back. I can remember my mother and my sibling. I can remember the last few moment of my real life and a few other times like when my mother took me camping. Heh, she forgot to put the stove in our pack, we ended up eating cold soup."

"Camping eh?"

"Yes, now let's go get something to eat."

Chalk and Andrew slowly left the cafe still talking about various things. They hadn't noticed Silvia and the captain standing in a corner of the room. They had arrived about mid way through the pair's conversation and had remained quiet until now.

"Quite the pair don't you think." said Silvia.

"I wouldn't say that but interesting conversation." replied Harry.

"Yes but we shouldn't eavesdrop now should we."

"Always the angel aren't we."

"Well someone has to be."

"You really trust that guy?"

"I'll be watching him but yes I do."

"I hope you're right about him."

"Me too Harry, me too."


End file.
